Morgan Stanley Increases Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) Price Target to $462.00

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) had its price objective raised by Morgan Stanley from $451.00 to $462.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the business services provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on MCO. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Moody’s from $492.00 to $536.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an outperform rating and a $521.00 price target for the company. Raymond James cut shares of Moody’s from a market perform rating to an underperform rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Moody’s from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and reduced their target price for the company from $482.00 to $455.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Moody’s from $455.00 to $470.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $487.77.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of MCO opened at $475.11 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.52. Moody’s has a 12-month low of $298.86 and a 12-month high of $495.10. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $474.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $432.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $86.76 billion, a PE ratio of 51.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted 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. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.30 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Moody’s will post 11.46 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.72%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moody’s

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Moody’s by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,283,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,613,867,000 after buying an additional 119,450 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew 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 last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Moody’s by 133.9% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,303,434 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd increased its stake in Moody’s by 1.2% during the second quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 1,980,021 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $833,450,000 after acquiring an additional 24,107 shares during the period. Finally, Windacre Partnership LLC grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 11.1% during the 1st quarter. Windacre Partnership LLC now owns 1,746,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $686,230,000 after purchasing an additional 173,900 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.