Moody’s Corporation $MCO Shares Sold by SouthState Corp

SouthState Corp trimmed its holdings in shares of Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 24.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 334 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 108 shares during the quarter. SouthState Corp’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $168,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 7,400 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,712,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC increased its holdings in Moody’s by 50.0% in the 2nd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 66 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp raised its position in Moody’s by 3.1% in the second quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 762 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $379,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the period. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division raised its position in Moody’s by 42.9% in the second quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 80 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Finally, Accretive Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 0.9% during the second quarter. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,753 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,381,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Moody’s from $534.00 to $507.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Moody’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $520.00 to $580.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price objective on shares of Moody’s in a report on Thursday, October 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moody’s currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $543.07.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Moody’s stock opened at $487.81 on Friday. Moody’s Corporation has a 52 week low of $378.71 and a 52 week high of $531.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70. The stock has a market cap of $87.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $487.99 and a 200-day moving average of $489.24.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.22. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.92% and a return on equity of 63.58%. The firm had revenue of $2.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.21 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. Moody’s has set its FY 2025 guidance at 14.500-14.750 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.94 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 21st. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.23%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,167 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.95, for a total value of $558,934.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 61,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,255,223.90. The trade was a 1.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders sold 2,984 shares of company stock valued at $1,470,249 in the last three months. 0.14% of the stock is currently 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.