Deutsche Bank AG Sells 107,452 Shares of Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Deutsche Bank AG reduced its holdings in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 13.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 701,008 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 107,452 shares during the quarter. Deutsche Bank AG’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $358,110,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Cromwell Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 363 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $185,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. DeDora Capital Inc. grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. DeDora Capital Inc. now owns 1,315 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $672,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 753 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $385,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 1,081 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $552,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 4,899 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,334,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MCO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $565.00 price objective on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Moody’s from $600.00 to $560.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Moody’s from $526.00 to $489.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. Barclays dropped their price target on Moody’s from $580.00 to $550.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Moody’s from $574.00 to $540.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $544.29.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moody’s news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 158 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.67, for a total transaction of $71,679.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 1,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $900,534.95. The trade was a 7.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,467 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $466.39, for a total value of $684,194.13. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 75,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,067,397.71. The trade was a 1.91% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 4,717 shares of company stock valued at $2,137,306 in the last quarter. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $450.90 on Thursday. Moody’s Corporation has a 1 year low of $402.28 and a 1 year high of $546.88. The stock has a market cap of $78.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.35. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $448.40 and a 200 day moving average of $469.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 1.16.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The business services provider reported $4.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.22 by $0.11. Moody’s had a net margin of 31.69% and a return on equity of 70.97%. The company had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.83 EPS. Moody’s’s revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. Moody’s has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.400-17.000 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Moody’s Corporation will post 16.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is presently 29.53%.

Moody’s Company Profile

Moody’s Corporation is a global provider of credit ratings, research, data and analytics that support financial decision-making and transparency in capital markets. The company traces its origins to the early 20th century when financial analyst John Moody began publishing credit information; today Moody’s is headquartered in New York and serves a broad set of market participants including investors, issuers, financial institutions, corporations, governments and regulators.

Moody’s operates primarily through two complementary businesses.