Texas Bank & Trust Co Invests $473,000 in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Texas Bank & Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $473,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MCO. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 3,212 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,520,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 2,020 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $956,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the period. Procyon Advisors LLC raised its position in Moody’s by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 907 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $429,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC raised its position in Moody’s by 81.2% in the 4th quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 3,720 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,761,000 after buying an additional 1,667 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. purchased a new stake in Moody’s in the 4th quarter valued at $230,000. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on MCO shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Moody’s from $610.00 to $572.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. StockNews.com lowered Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Moody’s has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $515.87.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $437.80, for a total transaction of $181,687.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 62,690 shares in the company, valued at $27,445,682. This trade represents a 0.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 1,111 shares of company stock worth $520,603 in the last ninety days. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $489.15 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $88.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. Moody’s Co. has a 1-year low of $378.71 and a 1-year high of $531.93. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $449.08 and its 200 day moving average is $472.55.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.58 by $0.25. Moody’s had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. The business had revenue of $1.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.94 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 32.47%.

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.