US Bancorp DE Increases Stock Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,121 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 417 shares during the quarter. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $10,472,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,047,772 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,344,802,000 after buying an additional 63,556 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,581,036 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,123,294,000 after buying an additional 723,226 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,172 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,708,851,000 after buying an additional 416,535 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 22.6% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,333,263 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,107,344,000 after buying an additional 430,878 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Moody’s by 32.0% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,075,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $985,115,000 after purchasing an additional 502,891 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on MCO. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moody’s has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $528.77.

Moody’s Price Performance

NYSE MCO opened at $501.19 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $90.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $490.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $482.65. Moody’s Co. has a 12-month low of $360.05 and a 12-month high of $531.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a $0.94 dividend. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is presently 33.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,314,236.28. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Profile

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.