Moody’s Co. (MCO) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.85 on December 13th

Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 22nd,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a dividend of 0.85 per share by the business services provider on Friday, December 13th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd.

Moody’s has raised its dividend payment by an average of 11.2% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 15 years. Moody’s has a dividend payout ratio of 25.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Moody’s to earn $13.17 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 25.8%.

Moody’s Stock Performance

NYSE MCO opened at $468.72 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $84.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.81, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $473.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $449.84. 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 has a 12-month low of $355.77 and a 12-month high of $495.10.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.43 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Moody’s will post 12.07 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on MCO. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective 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 upped their price target on Moody’s from $495.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Raymond James lowered Moody’s from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $500.00.

Moody’s Company 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.