Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Has $2.04 Million Stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund decreased its stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 7.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,194 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 413 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $2,041,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Benjamin Edwards Inc. acquired a new position in Moody’s in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the first quarter worth about $35,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the first quarter worth about $38,000. Advantage Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the fourth quarter worth about $52,000. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 23.0% in the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets downgraded Moody’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $455.00 in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group increased their price target on Moody’s from $455.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Moody’s from $443.00 to $454.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com upgraded Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on Moody’s from $430.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moody’s currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $448.50.

Moody’s Stock Up 2.6 %

NYSE MCO traded up $11.54 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $448.75. 884,404 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 757,001. The business’s 50-day moving average is $422.75 and its 200-day moving average is $399.32. Moody’s Co. has a twelve month low of $298.86 and a twelve month high of $458.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $81.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.28.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.22. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.03% and a net margin of 28.34%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.30 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 11.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be given a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 37.12%.

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.