Great Lakes Advisors LLC Lowers Stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Great Lakes Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 10.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 624 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 74 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $295,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 559 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $265,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Moody’s by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,651 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,728,000 after acquiring an additional 424 shares during the period. Donaldson Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Moody’s by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC now owns 23,032 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $10,903,000 after purchasing an additional 713 shares in the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 3,624 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,716,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the period. Finally, Dearborn Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the fourth quarter worth about $258,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $474.86, for a total value of $133,435.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $29,390,984.84. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Mizuho started coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $527.00.

Moody’s Stock Up 2.0 %

Moody’s stock opened at $446.67 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $486.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $481.41. 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 market capitalization of $80.35 billion, a PE ratio of 39.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 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 the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Research analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.84%. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 33.36%.

Moody’s 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.