Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Grows Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 15.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,960 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 405 shares during the quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $1,401,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MCO. Planning Capital Management Corp boosted its holdings in Moody’s by 566.7% during the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 60 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 272.2% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 67 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Asset Planning Inc bought a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 4th quarter worth approximately $42,000. Albion Financial Group UT bought a new position in shares of Moody’s in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Finally, Activest Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on MCO shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $528.77.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $29,314,236.28. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of MCO stock opened at $461.97 on Monday. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $360.05 and a 1 year high of $531.93. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $489.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $482.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $83.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.99, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. Moody’s had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. As a group, analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a $0.94 dividend. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.36%.

About Moody’s

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.