Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Shares Purchased by Hanlon Investment Management Inc.

Hanlon Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 11.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 942 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the period. Hanlon Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $446,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of MCO. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Moody’s by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,696,081 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,956,684,000 after acquiring an additional 63,820 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,680,799 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,738,645,000 after purchasing an additional 68,627 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 4th quarter worth $988,750,000. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,537,331 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $727,726,000 after purchasing an additional 53,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 73.6% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,131,656 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $534,255,000 after purchasing an additional 479,599 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MCO. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Mizuho started coverage on Moody’s in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 price target for the company. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $570.00 to $520.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $524.86.

Moody’s Stock Up 1.3 %

MCO stock opened at $428.55 on Monday. Moody’s Co. has a one year low of $360.05 and a one year high of $531.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $77.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.03, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $471.20 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $475.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its 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 return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were 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 was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is 33.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total value of $133,087.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,314,236.28. This trade represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 1,258 shares of company stock worth $610,936 in the last quarter. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.