Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Buys 106 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,371 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $2,545,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in Moody’s by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,001 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $485,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 67,560 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $31,981,000 after buying an additional 4,544 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its position in Moody’s by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 18,718 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,861,000 after buying an additional 1,164 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp grew its holdings in Moody’s by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 62,913 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $29,858,000 after acquiring an additional 6,340 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fiduciary Alliance LLC increased its position in Moody’s by 32.5% in the 4th quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 14,316 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,777,000 after acquiring an additional 3,510 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Mizuho began coverage on Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $527.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $463.08, for a total value of $192,178.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 62,824 shares in the company, valued at $29,092,537.92. This represents a 0.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In the last three months, insiders sold 1,258 shares of company stock valued at $610,936. 0.14% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Moody’s Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:MCO opened at $471.66 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $484.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $479.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a market capitalization of $84.85 billion, a PE ratio of 41.85, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. Moody’s Co. has a 52 week low of $360.05 and a 52 week high of $531.93.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. Analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. 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 0.80%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is currently 33.36%.

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.