Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Shares Purchased by Walter Public Investments Inc.

Walter Public Investments Inc. raised its position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 3.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 45,205 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,365 shares during the period. Moody’s makes up about 3.7% of Walter Public Investments Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest position. Walter Public Investments Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $21,454,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 133.9% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,277,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $958,481,000 after buying an additional 1,303,434 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the second quarter valued at approximately $141,336,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 41,992.9% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 279,918 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $117,826,000 after buying an additional 279,253 shares during the last quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 39.7% during the first quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC now owns 895,050 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $351,781,000 after buying an additional 254,178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 8.4% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,918,257 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,228,382,000 after buying an additional 225,846 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total transaction of $232,030.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,647 shares in the company, valued at $3,084,606.82. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total transaction of $232,030.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,647 shares in the company, valued at $3,084,606.82. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total value of $252,783.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 8,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,619,386.22. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,931 shares of company stock worth $1,332,825 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of MCO opened at $490.04 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $89.48 billion, a PE ratio of 53.50, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $476.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $434.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.52. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $298.86 and a 1 year high of $495.10.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.06 by $0.22. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.03% and a net margin of 28.34%. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.30 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 11.46 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th were given a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 37.12%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group lifted their target price on Moody’s from $455.00 to $470.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $455.00 to $464.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $492.00 to $536.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $500.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Moody’s has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $488.46.

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.