Lake Street Advisors Group LLC Raises Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Lake Street Advisors Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 15.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,556 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 334 shares during the quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $1,005,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 21.3% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 16,785 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,556,000 after buying an additional 2,942 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its stake in Moody’s by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 72,689 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $28,389,000 after purchasing an additional 2,933 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 392.6% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 24,668 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $9,634,000 after purchasing an additional 19,660 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 679,237 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $265,285,000 after purchasing an additional 14,344 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Motco lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 9,756.3% during the first quarter. Motco now owns 1,577 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $620,000 after purchasing an additional 1,561 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Moody’s Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MCO traded down $18.08 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $433.81. 1,222,670 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 725,790. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $421.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $398.36. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $298.86 and a 1 year high of $458.24. The company has a market cap of $79.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.36, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.22. Moody’s had a net margin of 27.01% and a return on equity of 54.50%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 11.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is currently 37.12%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Moody’s from $405.00 to $414.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Moody’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $482.00 to $455.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $374.00 to $392.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 5th. Bank of America increased their price target on Moody’s from $430.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $455.00 to $470.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $448.50.

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.