Ossiam Acquires 41,829 Shares of Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Ossiam grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 672.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 48,046 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 41,829 shares during the quarter. Ossiam’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $22,893,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BAM Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the third quarter worth $871,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 647,711 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $308,649,000 after acquiring an additional 1,942 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 73,793 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $35,161,000 after acquiring an additional 2,202 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in Moody’s by 135.7% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 45,829 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $21,837,000 after acquiring an additional 26,388 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Katamaran Capital LLP acquired a new position in Moody’s in the 3rd quarter worth about $4,275,000. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MCO has been the subject of several research reports. Bank of America began coverage on Moody’s in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $550.00 target price for the company. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $610.00 price objective on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Moody’s from $550.00 to $524.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $520.00 to $526.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $500.00 to $590.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $550.25.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of MCO stock opened at $429.91 on Friday. Moody’s Corporation has a 1-year low of $378.71 and a 1-year high of $546.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. The stock has a market cap of $76.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.43, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.45. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $482.19 and a 200-day moving average of $488.04.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 18th. The business services provider reported $3.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.39 by $0.25. Moody’s had a return on equity of 66.01% and a net margin of 31.86%.The company had revenue of $1.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.62 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. Moody’s has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.400-17.000 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 2nd were paid a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 2nd. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.94. Moody’s’s payout ratio is currently 30.12%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.71, for a total transaction of $171,266.25. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 2,459 shares in the company, valued at $1,123,049.89. This represents a 13.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 5,213 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.71, for a total transaction of $2,380,829.23. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 75,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,613,594.19. This represents a 6.44% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 6,755 shares of company stock worth $3,144,524. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Profile

Moody’s Corporation is a global provider of credit ratings, research, data and analytics that support financial decision-making and transparency in capital markets. The company traces its origins to the early 20th century when financial analyst John Moody began publishing credit information; today Moody’s is headquartered in New York and serves a broad set of market participants including investors, issuers, financial institutions, corporations, governments and regulators.

Moody’s operates primarily through two complementary businesses.