Sunbelt Securities Inc. Grows Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 101.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 109 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $52,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its holdings in Moody’s by 20.5% during the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 137,714 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $65,358,000 after acquiring an additional 23,395 shares in the last quarter. Chiron Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Moody’s in the third quarter worth about $1,075,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Moody’s by 12.6% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,894 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,375,000 after purchasing an additional 324 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Moody’s by 13.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,172 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,708,851,000 after buying an additional 416,535 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp raised its stake in Moody’s by 11.2% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 62,913 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $29,858,000 after buying an additional 6,340 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,354 shares in the company, valued at $29,387,952.46. This represents a 0.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Caroline Sullivan sold 1,681 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $654,296. The trade was a 54.30 % 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 insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MCO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Moody’s from $490.00 to $512.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James lowered shares of Moody’s from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $455.00 to $464.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Moody’s from $454.00 to $459.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $501.46.

Moody’s Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of Moody’s stock opened at $489.02 on Monday. Moody’s Co. has a 1-year low of $360.05 and a 1-year high of $503.95. The company has a market capitalization of $88.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.66, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.30. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $478.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $460.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.67.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 29.05% and a return on equity of 57.97%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.43 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 12.07 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 31.05%.

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.