FourThought Financial Partners LLC Purchases Shares of 722 Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

FourThought Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 722 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $342,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. GHE LLC lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. GHE LLC now owns 16,562 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,860,000 after purchasing an additional 231 shares in the last quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 508 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $241,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in Moody’s during the fourth quarter worth $474,000. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund raised its position in Moody’s by 15.0% during the fourth quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 42,843 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $20,281,000 after acquiring an additional 5,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MONECO Advisors LLC raised its position in Moody’s by 16.6% during the fourth quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC now owns 535 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $253,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Friday, December 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price target on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $528.77.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.2 %

MCO stock opened at $501.77 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $487.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $481.68. Moody’s Co. has a 52 week low of $360.05 and a 52 week high of $531.93. The company has a market capitalization of $90.32 billion, a PE ratio of 44.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31.

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

Moody’s Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $522.20, for a total transaction of $146,738.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $32,321,046.80. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.