Forsta AP Fonden Has $20.84 Million Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Forsta AP Fonden cut its position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 5.9% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 49,500 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 3,100 shares during the quarter. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $20,836,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,283,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,613,867,000 after purchasing an additional 119,450 shares during the last quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. lifted its position in Moody’s by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 12,049,611 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,706,096,000 after buying an additional 1,678,594 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in Moody’s by 8.4% during 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 last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 133.9% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,277,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $958,481,000 after purchasing an additional 1,303,434 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd raised its position in Moody’s by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 1,980,021 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $833,450,000 after purchasing an additional 24,107 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Moody’s from $443.00 to $454.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $430.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. BMO Capital Markets cut Moody’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $482.00 to $455.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $465.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total value of $848,010.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $473,647.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Moody’s news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The shares were 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 approximately $473,647.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total value of $232,030.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 6,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,084,606.82. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,931 shares of company stock worth $1,332,825 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of MCO opened at $478.59 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $87.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.25, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.29. Moody’s Co. has a twelve month low of $298.86 and a twelve month high of $490.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a current ratio of 1.52. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $461.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $418.76.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.72 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. The firm’s revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.30 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 11.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were given a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.12%.

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.