Moody’s Corporation $MCO Holdings Raised by Simon Quick Advisors LLC

Simon Quick Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 12.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,034 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $519,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MCO. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 527,518 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $244,817,000 after purchasing an additional 56,273 shares during the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 289.8% during the 1st quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,282 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,528,000 after purchasing an additional 2,440 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 47,859 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $22,287,000 after purchasing an additional 656 shares during the last quarter. TFR Capital LLC. increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 15.0% during the 1st quarter. TFR Capital LLC. now owns 4,258 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,983,000 after purchasing an additional 554 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diversify Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Moody’s during the first quarter worth approximately $3,845,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 546 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $493.90, for a total value of $269,669.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 61,082 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,168,399.80. This represents a 0.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 1,817 shares of company stock valued at $911,315 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MCO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays upped their target price on Moody’s from $520.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $580.00 to $560.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $552.00 to $563.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $526.00 to $471.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $534.00 to $507.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Moody’s has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $543.07.

Moody’s Price Performance

NYSE:MCO opened at $480.72 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $85.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.64, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.41. Moody’s Corporation has a one year low of $378.71 and a one year high of $531.93. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $490.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $487.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.92 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $2.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.92 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.92% and a return on equity of 63.58%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.21 EPS. Moody’s has set its FY 2025 guidance at 14.500-14.750 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Investors of record on Friday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.94 per share. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 21st. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 30.23%.

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.