D.B. Root & Company LLC Trims Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

D.B. Root & Company LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 14.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,441 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 250 shares during the quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $607,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Benjamin Edwards Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the first quarter worth about $25,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the first quarter worth about $27,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 114.3% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 75 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the first quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the first quarter worth about $38,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Moody’s from $405.00 to $414.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Barclays upped their target price on Moody’s from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com raised Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Moody’s from $443.00 to $454.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $456.00.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In related news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total transaction of $848,010.66. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $473,647.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Moody’s news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total value of $848,010.66. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $473,647.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total value of $252,783.94. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,619,386.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,931 shares of company stock valued at $1,332,825 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Stock Down 0.9 %

MCO stock traded down $4.35 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $460.58. The stock had a trading volume of 570,799 shares, compared to its average volume of 740,200. The firm has a market cap of $84.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a 50-day moving average of $433.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $404.98. Moody’s Co. has a 52-week low of $298.86 and a 52-week high of $465.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.52.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.06 by $0.22. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.03% and a net margin of 28.34%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.30 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 11.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th will be given a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.