Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) Downgraded by StockNews.com to “Hold”

StockNews.com cut shares of Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Tuesday.

MCO has been the subject of several other reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price target on the stock. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Friday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moody’s has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $528.77.

Moody’s Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $493.65 on Tuesday. Moody’s has a twelve month low of $360.05 and a twelve month high of $531.93. The firm has a market cap of $88.86 billion, a PE ratio of 43.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $488.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $481.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced 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 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 analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Analysts expect that Moody’s will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a dividend of $0.94 per share. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total value 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 represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moody’s

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the fourth quarter worth about $988,750,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 12.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,581,036 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,123,294,000 after purchasing an additional 723,226 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of 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. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in 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 worth $985,115,000 after purchasing an additional 502,891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 73.6% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,131,656 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $534,255,000 after buying an additional 479,599 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.