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

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) was downgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on MCO. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price target on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $528.77.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Moody’s stock traded up $0.82 on Tuesday, hitting $501.77. The stock had a trading volume of 999,681 shares, compared to its average volume of 763,432. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $487.66 and a 200 day moving average of $481.68. 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 has a twelve month low of $360.05 and a twelve month high of $531.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $90.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.52, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Moody’s will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $474.86, for a total transaction of $133,435.66. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,390,984.84. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Moody’s

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MCO. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,696,081 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,956,684,000 after buying an additional 63,820 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Moody’s by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,047,772 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,344,802,000 after acquiring an additional 63,556 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Moody’s by 12.3% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Moody’s by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,680,799 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,738,645,000 after purchasing an additional 68,627 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in Moody’s by 22.6% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,333,263 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,107,344,000 after purchasing an additional 430,878 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% 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.