Moody’s’ (MCO) “Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at William Blair

William Blair reissued their outperform rating on shares of Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning,RTT News reports.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $454.00 to $459.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 24th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, December 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $468.00 to $481.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Moody’s presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $522.62.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of Moody’s stock opened at $522.76 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $94.72 billion, a PE ratio of 47.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.31. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $484.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $478.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.67. Moody’s has a 1 year low of $360.05 and a 1 year high of $531.93.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.05% and a return on equity of 57.97%. Equities analysts forecast that Moody’s will post 12.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.05%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total value 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. This trade represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders sold 843 shares of company stock worth $405,455 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Carson Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Carson Advisory Inc. now owns 741 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $351,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Haverford Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 1.8% in the third quarter. Haverford Trust Co now owns 1,223 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $580,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Avitas Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Moody’s by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Avitas Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,803 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,327,000 after buying an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Moody’s by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 451 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $213,000 after buying an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Summit Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Moody’s by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Summit Financial LLC now owns 1,641 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $777,000 after buying an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.