PDS Planning Inc Sells 36 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

PDS Planning Inc trimmed its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 3.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 979 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 36 shares during the quarter. PDS Planning Inc’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $382,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MCO. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the third quarter worth approximately $153,532,000. Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 39.7% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,510,986 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $477,728,000 after buying an additional 429,473 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 32,275.4% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 221,448 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $86,489,000 after buying an additional 220,764 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 40.3% in the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 720,091 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $227,671,000 after buying an additional 206,698 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 5.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,301,253 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,359,927,000 after buying an additional 205,800 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MCO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Moody’s from $430.00 to $414.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Moody’s from $355.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. StockNews.com upgraded Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Moody’s from $425.00 to $405.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Moody’s from $411.00 to $424.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $397.75.

Moody’s Stock Performance

MCO traded up $2.48 on Tuesday, reaching $381.74. 178,299 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 712,031. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $383.57 and its 200 day moving average price is $370.41. Moody’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $296.45 and a fifty-two week high of $407.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $69.67 billion, a PE ratio of 43.43, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.27.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.19 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.33 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.48 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 27.16% and a return on equity of 55.23%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.60 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 10.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.89%. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.95%.

Moody’s 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.