Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) Issues FY 2025 Earnings Guidance

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) issued an update on its FY 2025 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of 14.000-14.500 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of 13.590. The company issued revenue guidance of -.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, December 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $565.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com raised shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 24th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $522.62.

Moody’s Stock Performance

MCO stock opened at $522.76 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $94.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.74, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.31. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $484.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $478.15. Moody’s has a one year low of $360.05 and a one year high of $531.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.67.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.35. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.05% and a return on equity of 57.97%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Moody’s will post 12.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction of $133,087.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $29,314,236.28. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 843 shares of company stock worth $405,455 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.