State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Has $28.63 Million Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lowered its stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 60,475 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 39 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $28,627,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MCO. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 14.1% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 23,733 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $11,263,000 after buying an additional 2,933 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 2.7% in the third quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 3,482 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,652,000 after buying an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,107 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $525,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Net Worth Advisory Group acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 3rd quarter worth about $308,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 108.9% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $705,000 after purchasing an additional 774 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $490.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Friday. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $495.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com raised Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $522.62.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction of $133,087.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $29,314,236.28. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 843 shares of company stock worth $405,455 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Trading Down 0.9 %

MCO stock opened at $522.76 on Monday. Moody’s Co. has a 1-year low of $360.05 and a 1-year high of $531.93. The firm has a market cap of $94.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.31. The business’s 50 day moving average is $484.94 and its 200-day moving average is $478.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.35. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.97% and a net margin of 29.05%. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Equities analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 12.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a $0.94 dividend. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.05%.

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.