Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Shares Sold by Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co

Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co lessened its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 7.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 7,902 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 644 shares during the period. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $3,741,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Moody’s by 0.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,047,772 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,344,802,000 after purchasing an additional 63,556 shares during the period. 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 worth $3,123,294,000 after buying an additional 723,226 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,172 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,708,851,000 after acquiring an additional 416,535 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 22.6% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,333,263 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,107,344,000 after acquiring an additional 430,878 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 32.0% during the third 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 acquiring an additional 502,891 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com raised Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 24th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $528.77.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,314,236.28. This trade represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Moody’s Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE:MCO opened at $500.93 on Tuesday. Moody’s Co. has a 1-year low of $360.05 and a 1-year high of $531.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $90.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.45, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $487.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $481.42.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share 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. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a dividend of $0.94 per share. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.36%.

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.