Insight Wealth Strategies LLC Acquires Shares of 9,595 Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Insight Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 9,595 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,771,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Moody’s by 87.7% during the 3rd quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 122 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. Advantage Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the fourth quarter worth about $52,000. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the fourth quarter worth about $64,000. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Moody’s during the 3rd quarter valued at about $69,000. Finally, Spartan Planning & Wealth Management bought a new position in Moody’s during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $73,000. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Moody’s Stock Up 1.9 %

NYSE MCO traded up $7.77 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $420.08. 808,974 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 639,968. The firm has a market cap of $76.71 billion, a PE ratio of 45.86, a PEG ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. Moody’s Co. has a 52-week low of $298.86 and a 52-week high of $420.86. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $395.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $389.14.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $3.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 27.01% and a return on equity of 54.50%. The business’s revenue was up 21.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 10.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.12%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MCO shares. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Moody’s from $405.00 to $414.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $411.00 to $424.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Barclays raised shares of Moody’s from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $375.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Moody’s from $350.00 to $374.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $400.50.

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.