National Pension Service Boosts Stake in Moody’s Corporation $MCO

National Pension Service grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 500,927 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,634 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned about 0.29% of Moody’s worth $226,880,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MCO. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 41,935.4% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 100,442,257 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $45,492,307,000 after purchasing an additional 100,203,310 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Moody’s during the fourth quarter worth $1,097,101,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Moody’s in the second quarter worth $914,721,000. Egerton Capital UK LLP bought a new stake in Moody’s during the fourth quarter valued at $395,096,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 73.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,716,304 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $876,775,000 after purchasing an additional 726,971 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MCO. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $521.00 to $530.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $500.00 target price on Moody’s in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Moody’s from $489.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Moody’s currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $553.61.

Moody’s Price Performance

NYSE MCO opened at $467.19 on Friday. Moody’s Corporation has a 52 week low of $402.28 and a 52 week high of $546.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01. The stock has a market cap of $80.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $491.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $463.92.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The business services provider reported $4.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.26 by $0.42. Moody’s had a return on equity of 80.35% and a net margin of 34.25%.The company had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Moody’s has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.500-17.000 EPS. Analysts forecast that Moody’s Corporation will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th were paid a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 14th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.13%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,467 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $484.30, for a total transaction of $710,468.10. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,166,165.20. This trade represents a 2.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

About Moody’s

Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) is a global provider of credit ratings, research, data and analytical tools. Through Moody’s Ratings, the company evaluates the creditworthiness of governments, companies, financial institutions and debt securities, helping investors and other market participants assess credit risk. Its ratings and related research cover a broad range of fixed-income markets and structured finance products.

Through Moody’s Analytics, the company provides economic and financial intelligence, risk-management software, data, quantitative models and advisory services.