Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Takes Position in Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 114,103 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $51,680,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MCO. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Moody’s in the fourth quarter worth $1,097,101,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s in the 2nd quarter worth about $914,721,000. Egerton Capital UK LLP bought a new position in Moody’s in the 4th quarter worth about $395,096,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Moody’s by 73.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,716,304 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $876,775,000 after purchasing an additional 726,971 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Moody’s by 72.5% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,081,807 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $471,963,000 after purchasing an additional 454,684 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on MCO shares. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $500.00 target price on shares of Moody’s in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $557.00 to $572.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Morgan Stanley set a $512.00 target price on Moody’s in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $505.00 price target on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $553.61.

Moody’s Stock Performance

MCO stock opened at $511.25 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $88.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.33. Moody’s Corporation has a 1 year low of $402.28 and a 1 year high of $546.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $480.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $458.52.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The business services provider reported $4.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.26 by $0.42. Moody’s had a return on equity of 80.35% and a net margin of 34.25%.The company had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.09 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.56 earnings per share. Moody’s’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Moody’s has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.500-17.000 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Moody’s Corporation will post 16.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 4th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th will be given a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 26.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,467 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $484.30, for a total transaction of $710,468.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,166,165.20. This represents a 2.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 158 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 $900,534.95. The trade was a 7.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 3,092 shares of company stock valued at $1,447,682. 0.14% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.