Your Advocates Ltd. LLP Sells 47 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Your Advocates Ltd. LLP decreased its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 15.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 253 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 47 shares during the period. Your Advocates Ltd. LLP’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $120,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MCO. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its holdings in Moody’s by 2.9% in the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,535 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,677,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co grew its holdings in Moody’s by 46.2% in the third quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 3,017 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,432,000 after purchasing an additional 953 shares during the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC grew its holdings in Moody’s by 37.3% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 471 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $224,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Moody’s by 3.7% in the third quarter. Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 870 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $413,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 17.6% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 13,318 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,306,000 after buying an additional 1,990 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total value of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,314,236.28. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Trading Down 2.3 %

Shares of Moody’s stock opened at $499.62 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $487.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $480.92. The company has a market cap of $89.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31. Moody’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $360.05 and a fifty-two week high of $531.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. As a group, equities analysts predict 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. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is 33.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MCO shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective 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. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, February 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $528.77.

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.