Moody’s Co. (MCO) To Go Ex-Dividend on November 22nd

Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 22nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a 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 raised its dividend annually for the last 15 consecutive years. Moody’s has a payout ratio of 26.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Moody’s to earn $12.84 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 26.5%.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Moody’s stock opened at $468.86 on Thursday. Moody’s has a 1 year low of $298.86 and a 1 year high of $495.10. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $478.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $437.61. The company has a market cap of $85.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.19, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.43 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Moody’s will post 11.46 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on MCO shares. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Moody’s from $536.00 to $543.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays upped their target price on Moody’s from $500.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $455.00 to $464.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $500.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total transaction of $232,030.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,647 shares in the company, valued at $3,084,606.82. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total transaction of $232,030.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 6,647 shares in the company, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total value of $252,783.94. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,619,386.22. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,931 shares of company stock worth $1,332,825. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.