Evercore ISI Begins Coverage on Moody’s (NYSE:MCO)

Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) in a research note released on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage issued an outperform rating and a $521.00 price objective on the business services provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $455.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Raymond James cut Moody’s from a market perform rating to an underperform rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Moody’s to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moody’s currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $483.85.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Moody’s stock opened at $460.53 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. The firm has a market cap of $84.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.29. Moody’s has a 1-year low of $298.86 and a 1-year high of $495.10. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $472.99 and a 200-day moving average of $429.54.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.30 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Moody’s will post 11.32 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.12%.

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total value of $232,030.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 6,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,084,606.82. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Moody’s news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total transaction of $232,030.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,084,606.82. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total transaction of $252,783.94. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,619,386.22. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,931 shares of company stock worth $1,332,825 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MCO. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 133.9% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,277,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $958,481,000 after purchasing an additional 1,303,434 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Moody’s in the 2nd quarter worth $141,336,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its holdings in Moody’s by 41,992.9% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 279,918 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $117,826,000 after acquiring an additional 279,253 shares during the period. Allen Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 39.7% in the first quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC now owns 895,050 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $351,781,000 after acquiring an additional 254,178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 8.4% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,918,257 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,228,382,000 after acquiring an additional 225,846 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.