Empirical Finance LLC Buys 119 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Empirical Finance LLC raised its stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 5,456 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $2,589,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Moody’s by 133.9% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,277,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $958,481,000 after purchasing an additional 1,303,434 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 74,000.1% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 724,699 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $343,935,000 after acquiring an additional 723,721 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Moody’s in the second quarter worth $141,336,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in Moody’s by 41,992.9% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 279,918 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $117,826,000 after acquiring an additional 279,253 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Moody’s by 8.4% during the 2nd 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 purchasing an additional 225,846 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on MCO shares. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Moody’s from $495.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Moody’s from $451.00 to $462.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Moody’s from $454.00 to $459.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com cut Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $500.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moody’s news, SVP Caroline Sullivan sold 1,681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.40, for a total value of $777,294.40. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $654,296. This trade represents a 54.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Moody’s Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $473.36 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $85.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.23, a PEG ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 1.29. Moody’s Co. has a twelve month low of $352.17 and a twelve month high of $495.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. The company has a 50 day moving average of $473.97 and a 200 day moving average of $447.48.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.32. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.97% and a net margin of 29.05%. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.43 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 12.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.72%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.05%.

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.