Adero Partners LLC Has $313,000 Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Adero Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 660 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Adero Partners LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $313,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MCO. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 1,303,434 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Moody’s by 74,000.1% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 724,699 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $343,935,000 after acquiring an additional 723,721 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in Moody’s in the 2nd quarter worth $141,336,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its holdings in Moody’s by 41,992.9% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 279,918 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $117,826,000 after acquiring an additional 279,253 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Moody’s by 8.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,918,257 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,228,382,000 after acquiring an additional 225,846 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Price Performance

NYSE:MCO opened at $473.31 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $85.76 billion, a PE ratio of 43.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.29. Moody’s Co. has a 12 month low of $352.17 and a 12 month high of $495.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $473.97 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $448.02.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.05% and a return on equity of 57.97%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.43 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 12.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 31.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MCO has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $451.00 to $462.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $454.00 to $459.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $495.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $536.00 to $543.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moody’s currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $500.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Caroline Sullivan sold 1,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.40, for a total transaction of $777,294.40. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $654,296. The trade was a 54.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Moody’s

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.