Plato Investment Management Ltd Acquires 646 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Plato Investment Management Ltd grew its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 113.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,213 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 646 shares during the quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $576,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 4th quarter worth $281,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 34.9% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 7,720 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,654,000 after purchasing an additional 1,996 shares in the last quarter. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 4th quarter worth $502,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,113 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,001,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Levin Capital Strategies L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 4th quarter worth $237,000. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MCO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup assumed coverage on Moody’s in a report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $528.77.

Moody’s Price Performance

NYSE MCO opened at $481.05 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $86.59 billion, a PE ratio of 42.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31. 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 business’s fifty day moving average is $490.15 and its 200 day moving average is $482.75. Moody’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $360.05 and a fifty-two week high of $531.93.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. Sell-side analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is currently 33.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $522.20, for a total transaction of $146,738.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $32,321,046.80. This trade represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.