Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC Invests $218,000 in Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC purchased a new stake in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 435 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $218,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 20.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,724 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $803,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in Moody’s by 49.8% in the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 22,532 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $10,493,000 after buying an additional 7,492 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its stake in Moody’s by 21.4% in the 1st quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 2,452 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,142,000 after buying an additional 432 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its position in Moody’s by 50.0% during the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 2,386 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,111,000 after buying an additional 795 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sowell Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 1st quarter worth $619,000. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $512.65, for a total transaction of $212,749.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 61,350 shares in the company, valued at $31,451,077.50. The trade was a 0.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 2,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $511.18, for a total value of $1,083,701.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,558 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,841,138.44. The trade was a 27.61% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 9,008 shares of company stock worth $4,603,224. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MCO. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. UBS Group increased their target price on Moody’s from $445.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $528.00 price target on Moody’s and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Moody’s from $552.00 to $563.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on Moody’s from $496.00 to $532.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $543.27.

Moody’s Stock Performance

NYSE MCO opened at $478.32 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $498.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $482.71. The company has a market capitalization of $85.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.64, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.41. Moody’s Corporation has a 1-year low of $378.71 and a 1-year high of $531.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.39 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 60.73% and a net margin of 29.18%.Moody’s’s revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.28 earnings per share. Moody’s has set its FY 2025 guidance at 13.500-14.000 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th were given a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.95%.

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.