Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Shares Sold by AXS Investments LLC

AXS Investments LLC cut its stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 7.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,422 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 277 shares during the quarter. AXS Investments LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $1,336,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Commerce Bank lifted its holdings in Moody’s by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 6,165 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,408,000 after acquiring an additional 135 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 6.0% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 17,540 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,851,000 after buying an additional 992 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 4,429 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,730,000 after buying an additional 124 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 326 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $127,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 4th quarter worth approximately $225,000. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MCO. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $450.00 target price on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Barclays upgraded Moody’s from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $375.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Moody’s from $350.00 to $374.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Moody’s from $411.00 to $424.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $400.50.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE:MCO traded up $3.86 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $410.88. The company had a trading volume of 217,150 shares, compared to its average volume of 719,022. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68. The company has a 50-day moving average of $389.67 and a 200 day moving average of $382.12. The company has a market cap of $75.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.26. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $298.86 and a 1 year high of $417.75.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $3.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.06 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 54.50% and a net margin of 27.01%. The company’s revenue was up 21.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.99 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 10.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.12%.

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.