Boston Financial Mangement LLC Sells 42,071 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Boston Financial Mangement LLC decreased its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 44.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 51,699 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 42,071 shares during the period. Boston Financial Mangement LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $24,536,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 133.9% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,277,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $958,481,000 after purchasing an additional 1,303,434 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Moody’s by 74,000.1% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 724,699 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $343,935,000 after buying an additional 723,721 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Moody’s during the second quarter worth $141,336,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its position in Moody’s by 41,992.9% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 279,918 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $117,826,000 after acquiring an additional 279,253 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allen Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 39.7% in the first quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC now owns 895,050 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $351,781,000 after acquiring an additional 254,178 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MCO has been the topic of several analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. StockNews.com cut Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group raised their price target on Moody’s from $495.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Moody’s in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $521.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Moody’s from $510.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $500.00.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of Moody’s stock opened at $461.87 on Tuesday. Moody’s Co. has a 12 month low of $298.86 and a 12 month high of $495.10. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $477.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $439.49. The firm has a market cap of $84.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.42, a P/E/G 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 earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.32. Moody’s had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.43 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 11.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.12%.

Insider Activity

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

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.