TRB Advisors LP Acquires New Shares in Moody’s Corporation $MCO

TRB Advisors LP acquired a new stake in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 10,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,016,000. Moody’s comprises approximately 1.2% of TRB Advisors LP’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Moody’s by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,815,629 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,899,490,000 after acquiring an additional 119,548 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Moody’s by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,311,020 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,159,185,000 after acquiring an additional 215,551 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its position in Moody’s by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 1,651,495 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $769,085,000 after acquiring an additional 60,816 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Moody’s by 9.7% in the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,586,672 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $738,897,000 after acquiring an additional 140,128 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Moody’s by 21.0% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,530,582 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $712,777,000 after acquiring an additional 265,389 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $481.09, for a total value of $199,652.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 61,082 shares in the company, valued at $29,385,939.38. This represents a 0.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 2,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $511.18, for a total value of $1,083,701.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 5,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,841,138.44. This trade represents a 27.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,423 shares of company stock worth $4,802,876 over the last three months. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.5%

NYSE:MCO opened at $470.72 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.41. Moody’s Corporation has a one year low of $378.71 and a one year high of $531.93. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $497.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $483.11.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.39 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 60.73% and a net margin of 29.18%.Moody’s’s revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.28 EPS. Moody’s has set its FY 2025 guidance at 13.500-14.000 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a $0.94 dividend. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is 31.95%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MCO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays increased their price target on Moody’s from $520.00 to $580.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Moody’s from $531.00 to $535.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Mizuho increased their price target on Moody’s from $532.00 to $539.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $520.00 price target on Moody’s in a report on Thursday, October 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Moody’s presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $542.87.

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.