Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Acquires Shares of 1,671 Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 1,671 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $791,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Moody’s during the fourth quarter valued at $988,750,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Moody’s by 92,060.2% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 612,865 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $290,112,000 after acquiring an additional 612,200 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its stake in Moody’s by 73.6% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,131,656 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $534,255,000 after acquiring an additional 479,599 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Moody’s by 13.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,172 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,708,851,000 after purchasing an additional 416,535 shares during the period. Finally, Canoe Financial LP increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 510.8% during the fourth quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 422,624 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $200,058,000 after purchasing an additional 353,431 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,314,236.28. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 in the last quarter. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Moody’s Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of Moody’s stock opened at $461.09 on Friday. Moody’s Co. has a twelve month low of $360.05 and a twelve month high of $531.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The company’s 50 day moving average is $485.56 and its 200 day moving average is $480.00. The company has a market cap of $82.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34.

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

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a dividend of $0.94 per share. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Moody’s’s payout ratio is currently 33.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on MCO shares. Citigroup began coverage on Moody’s in a research report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Mizuho started coverage on shares of Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $527.00.

Moody’s Company 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.