Moody’s Corporation $MCO Shares Sold by Janney Montgomery Scott LLC

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lessened its stake in shares of Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 19.1% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 31,505 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 7,454 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $15,803,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Horizon Financial Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 77,500.0% during the first quarter. Horizon Financial Services LLC now owns 2,328 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,084,000 after purchasing an additional 2,325 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 11.9% during the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 527,518 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $244,817,000 after purchasing an additional 56,273 shares in the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 289.8% during the first quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,282 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,528,000 after purchasing an additional 2,440 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 7.9% during the first quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 69,849 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $32,528,000 after acquiring an additional 5,095 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 10.3% during the first quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 7,259 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,381,000 after acquiring an additional 678 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Moody’s from $509.00 to $534.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $528.00 target price on Moody’s and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Moody’s from $595.00 to $597.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 19th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Moody’s from $525.00 to $552.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on Moody’s from $496.00 to $532.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $541.21.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $481.55 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $504.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $481.48. The company has a market cap of $86.20 billion, a PE ratio of 40.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 1.42. Moody’s Corporation has a 12-month low of $378.71 and a 12-month high of $531.93.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.39 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 60.73% and a net margin of 29.18%.The business’s revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.28 earnings per share. Moody’s has set its FY 2025 guidance at 13.500-14.000 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were given a $0.94 dividend. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is 31.95%.

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,457 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $508.83, for a total value of $741,365.31. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 1,386 shares in the company, valued at $705,238.38. This represents a 51.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 2,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $511.18, for a total value of $1,083,701.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 5,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,841,138.44. This trade represents a 27.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,423 shares of company stock valued at $4,812,135 over the last three months. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Moody’s Company 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.