Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) Stock: Insider Robert Fauber Sells 923 Shares

Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) CEO Robert Fauber sold 923 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.00, for a total value of $419,965.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 51,364 shares in the company, valued at $23,370,620. The trade was a 1.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Robert Fauber also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, August 3rd, Robert Fauber sold 1,467 shares of Moody’s stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $484.30, for a total value of $710,468.10.

Moody’s Stock Performance

MCO traded down $5.96 during trading on Friday, reaching $441.40. 1,602,505 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,071,233. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01. The stock has a market cap of $76.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.99, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.35. Moody’s Corporation has a 52 week low of $402.28 and a 52 week high of $546.88. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $482.03 and a 200 day moving average of $464.69.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The business services provider reported $4.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.26 by $0.42. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.09 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 34.25% and a return on equity of 80.35%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.56 earnings per share. Moody’s has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.500-17.000 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Moody’s Corporation will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th were paid a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 14th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.13%.

Institutional Trading of Moody’s

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Wilkerson Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 87.1% in the 1st quarter. Wilkerson Advisory Group LLC now owns 58 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 1,866.7% during the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 59 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Compass Financial Management LLC acquired a new stake in Moody’s during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, FNY Investment Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Moody’s in the second quarter valued at about $45,000. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on MCO. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $489.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $530.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Moody’s in a research note on Friday, July 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $610.00 target price on the stock. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $505.00 price target on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moody’s has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $555.12.

About Moody’s

Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) is a global provider of credit ratings, research, data, and analytical tools. Through Moody’s Ratings, the company evaluates the creditworthiness of companies, governments, financial institutions, and structured finance securities, offering opinions and research used by investors, issuers, and other market participants.

Through Moody’s Analytics, the company provides financial intelligence, economic research, risk assessment tools, data, and software. Its products support credit and market risk management, compliance, portfolio analysis, lending, insurance, and corporate planning.

Moody’s traces its origins to 1909, when John Moody published an analysis of railroad securities.