Vinva Investment Management Ltd Raises Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Vinva Investment Management Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 11.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 835 shares during the period. Vinva Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $3,815,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MCO. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Moody’s by 272.2% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 67 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Asset Planning Inc purchased a new stake in Moody’s in the fourth quarter valued at $42,000. Albion Financial Group UT purchased a new stake in Moody’s in the fourth quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, Activest Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the 4th quarter worth about $47,000. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody’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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $29,314,236.28. This trade represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193 in the last ninety days. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MCO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price 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. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moody’s has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $527.00.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of MCO stock opened at $460.25 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $485.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $480.79. The company has a market cap of $82.79 billion, a PE ratio of 40.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. Moody’s Co. has a 52 week low of $360.05 and a 52 week high of $531.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.82%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.