Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) Releases FY24 Earnings Guidance

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $11.00-11.40 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.04. Moody’s also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 11.000-11.400 EPS.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Moody’s stock traded down $11.88 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $440.01. The company had a trading volume of 359,843 shares, compared to its average volume of 719,615. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $421.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $398.11. Moody’s has a 52 week low of $298.86 and a 52 week high of $458.24. 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 capitalization of $80.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.28.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.06 by $0.22. Moody’s had a return on equity of 54.50% and a net margin of 27.01%. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.30 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Moody’s will post 11.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were given a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 37.12%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Moody’s from $454.00 to $492.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets downgraded Moody’s from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and decreased their target price for the company from $482.00 to $455.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Moody’s from $374.00 to $392.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Friday, July 5th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $443.00 to $454.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $430.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Moody’s has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $442.25.

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.