King Luther Capital Management Corp Sells 9,696 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

King Luther Capital Management Corp trimmed its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 3.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 290,124 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 9,696 shares during the quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $137,690,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Haverford Trust Co grew its holdings in Moody’s by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Haverford Trust Co now owns 1,223 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $580,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Conning Inc. lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 778 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $327,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,107 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $525,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,357 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $571,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 960 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MCO. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $454.00 to $459.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $495.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $490.00 to $512.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $500.00.

Moody’s Trading Up 1.2 %

Moody’s stock opened at $474.54 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $473.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $450.02. The company has a market cap of $85.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.29. Moody’s Co. has a 52-week low of $358.49 and a 52-week high of $495.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.97% and a net margin of 29.05%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.43 EPS. Analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 12.07 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.05%.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In related news, SVP Caroline Sullivan sold 1,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.40, for a total value of $777,294.40. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $654,296. The trade was a 54.30 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.99, for a total value of $134,596.19. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,354 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,387,952.46. This represents a 0.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.