Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Acquires New Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,671 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $791,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Allstate Corp purchased a new position in Moody’s in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,310,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 176.5% in the fourth quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 9,643 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,565,000 after acquiring an additional 6,156 shares during the period. DnB Asset Management AS grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 30,661 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $14,514,000 after purchasing an additional 1,011 shares in the last quarter. denkapparat Operations GmbH bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the 4th quarter valued at $272,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in Moody’s by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,531 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,092,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup initiated coverage on Moody’s in a report on Friday, December 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $565.00 target price for the company. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Mizuho assumed coverage on Moody’s in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $527.00.

Moody’s Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $461.09 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $82.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.91, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. Moody’s Co. has a one year low of $360.05 and a one year high of $531.93. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $485.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $480.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.67.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. As a group, analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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 yield of 0.82%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.20, for a total transaction of $146,738.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,321,046.80. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193 in the last ninety days. 0.14% of the stock is owned by 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.