Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Buys 5,733 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 27.7% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 26,448 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,733 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $12,552,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 52.2% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 35,264 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $14,844,000 after purchasing an additional 12,099 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 98.3% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 7,886 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,099,000 after acquiring an additional 3,909 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 204.2% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 18,753 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,371,000 after acquiring an additional 12,588 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 2nd quarter worth about $141,336,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 3rd quarter worth about $2,792,000. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on MCO shares. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $495.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $455.00 to $464.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $451.00 to $462.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $500.00.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE:MCO opened at $480.66 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $87.10 billion, a PE ratio of 43.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.29. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $473.43 and its 200 day moving average is $451.64. Moody’s Co. has a 12 month low of $358.49 and a 12 month high of $495.10.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.05% and a return on equity of 57.97%. Moody’s’s revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.43 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 12.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is 31.05%.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.99, for a total value of $134,596.19. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,354 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,387,952.46. The trade was a 0.46 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Caroline Sullivan sold 1,681 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.40, for a total transaction of $777,294.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $654,296. This represents a 54.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.