Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Stake Raised by Van Strum & Towne Inc.

Van Strum & Towne Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 18.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,750 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 750 shares during the quarter. Van Strum & Towne Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $2,249,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in MCO. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in Moody’s by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 2,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $983,000 after buying an additional 138 shares during the period. Harbour Investments Inc. increased its stake in Moody’s by 17.8% in the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 456 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $216,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the period. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Moody’s by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,454 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,165,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Moody’s by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,061 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $504,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Moody’s by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 66,094 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $31,368,000 after buying an additional 556 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Stock Performance

NYSE:MCO opened at $446.67 on Friday. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $360.05 and a 1 year high of $531.93. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $486.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $481.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.35 billion, a PE ratio of 39.63, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.84%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is 33.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total value of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,314,236.28. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moody’s has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $527.00.

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.