Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Short Interest Update

Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 2,740,000 shares, a growth of 43.5% from the February 13th total of 1,910,000 shares. Currently, 1.5% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 740,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.7 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction of $133,087.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,314,236.28. The trade was a 0.45 % 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. Insiders have sold 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Moody’s during the 4th quarter worth $988,750,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Moody’s by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,581,036 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,123,294,000 after purchasing an additional 723,226 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in Moody’s by 92,060.2% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 612,865 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $290,112,000 after purchasing an additional 612,200 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in Moody’s by 32.0% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,075,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $985,115,000 after purchasing an additional 502,891 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in Moody’s by 73.6% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,131,656 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $534,255,000 after purchasing an additional 479,599 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Moody’s Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE:MCO traded up $6.70 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $453.54. The stock had a trading volume of 975,131 shares, compared to its average volume of 701,226. Moody’s has a 1 year low of $360.05 and a 1 year high of $531.93. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $486.63 and its 200-day moving average is $481.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $81.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. Research analysts predict that Moody’s will post 13.95 earnings per share 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 given a $0.94 dividend. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.83%. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MCO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price target on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Mizuho initiated coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 price target on the stock. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Moody’s currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $527.00.

About Moody’s

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.