Fiduciary Alliance LLC Sells 262 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Fiduciary Alliance LLC lowered its stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 2.6% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,830 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 262 shares during the period. Fiduciary Alliance LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $3,872,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MCO. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Moody’s by 42.2% in the 1st quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,459 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,146,000 after buying an additional 1,621 shares during the period. Norris Perne & French LLP MI increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 0.8% during the first quarter. Norris Perne & French LLP MI now owns 53,192 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $20,906,000 after acquiring an additional 396 shares during the period. DeDora Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Moody’s during the first quarter valued at approximately $487,000. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Moody’s during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,967,000. Finally, Sarasin & Partners LLP boosted its stake in Moody’s by 10.5% in the first quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 360,979 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $141,876,000 after acquiring an additional 34,370 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on MCO shares. Barclays upgraded shares of Moody’s from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $375.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $350.00 to $374.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $411.00 to $424.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $405.00 to $414.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $400.50.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of MCO traded up $1.53 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $420.93. The stock had a trading volume of 923,554 shares, compared to its average volume of 675,526. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $402.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $391.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68. The firm has a market cap of $76.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.27. Moody’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $298.86 and a fifty-two week high of $428.79.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $3.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.31. Moody’s had a return on equity of 54.50% and a net margin of 27.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.99 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 10.69 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th were given a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.12%.

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.