King Luther Capital Management Corp Sells 8,102 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

King Luther Capital Management Corp trimmed its position in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 2.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 282,022 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 8,102 shares during the quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp owned approximately 0.16% of Moody’s worth $133,501,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 4.5% in the 4th 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. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its holdings in Moody’s by 6.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,164 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp raised its holdings in Moody’s by 11.2% in 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. Fiduciary Alliance LLC raised its holdings 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 worth $6,777,000 after acquiring an additional 3,510 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Burney Co. purchased a new position in Moody’s in the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,775,000. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MCO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price objective for the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $528.77.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total value of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,314,236.28. This trade represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Price Performance

Shares of Moody’s stock opened at $449.99 on Tuesday. Moody’s Co. 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 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $81.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $489.20 and its 200 day moving average is $482.51.

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

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a dividend of $0.94 per share. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.84%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.36%.

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.