California Public Employees Retirement System Has $132.12 Million Stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

California Public Employees Retirement System reduced its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 5.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 279,106 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 14,891 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $132,120,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Moody’s by 272.2% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 67 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Moody’s in the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. Asset Planning Inc acquired a new position in Moody’s during the 4th quarter worth about $42,000. Albion Financial Group UT bought a new stake in Moody’s during the 4th quarter worth about $45,000. Finally, Activest Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Moody’s in the 4th quarter valued at about $47,000. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MCO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com downgraded Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Mizuho assumed coverage on Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. One investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $527.00.

Moody’s Stock Down 1.7 %

Moody’s stock opened at $461.09 on Monday. Moody’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $360.05 and a fifty-two week high of $531.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $82.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.91, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $485.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $480.01.

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

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 33.36%.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In other 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 value of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $29,314,236.28. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In the last three months, insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company 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.