GAMMA Investing LLC Buys New Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 355 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $139,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,877 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,124,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares during the period. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 26,581 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,381,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the period. RWA Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 4th quarter worth approximately $996,000. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,515,430 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $591,867,000 after acquiring an additional 4,444 shares during the period. Finally, Duality Advisers LP lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 99.9% in the 4th quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 15,648 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,111,000 after acquiring an additional 7,822 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MCO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Moody’s from $425.00 to $405.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Moody’s from $411.00 to $424.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Moody’s from $362.00 to $350.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Moody’s from $430.00 to $414.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 target price on shares of Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $397.75.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.3 %

MCO stock opened at $376.13 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $384.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $371.72. Moody’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $296.45 and a fifty-two week high of $407.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $68.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.74.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.19 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.33 by ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 27.16% and a return on equity of 55.23%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.60 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 10.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a $0.85 dividend. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.95%.

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.