Savant Capital LLC Acquires 219 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Savant Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 7.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,271 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 219 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $1,548,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 18,718 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,861,000 after buying an additional 1,164 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp raised its stake in Moody’s by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 62,913 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $29,858,000 after acquiring an additional 6,340 shares during the period. Fiduciary Alliance LLC raised its stake in Moody’s by 32.5% during the 4th quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 14,316 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,777,000 after acquiring an additional 3,510 shares during the period. Burney Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the fourth quarter worth $6,775,000. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 567.2% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 80,781 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $38,338,000 after purchasing an additional 68,674 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MCO shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $454.00 to $459.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Moody’s from $462.00 to $481.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com raised Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 24th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $468.00 to $481.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $495.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $507.36.

Moody’s Stock Up 4.4 %

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $527.78 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $483.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $477.80. The company has a market capitalization of $95.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.31. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $360.05 and a 1 year high of $528.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.67.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.35. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.97% and a net margin of 29.05%. On average, analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 12.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,314,236.28. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders sold 843 shares of company stock valued at $405,455 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Moody’s

Moody’s Corporation operates as an integrated risk assessment firm worldwide. It operates in two segments, Moody’s Analytics and Moody’s Investors Services. The Moody’s Analytics segment develops a range of products and services that support the risk management activities of institutional participants in financial markets.