Moody’s Corporation $MCO Shares Sold by Prudential PLC

Prudential PLC decreased its holdings in shares of Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 75.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 6,402 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 19,916 shares during the quarter. Prudential PLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $3,270,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. California Public Employees Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 3.6% in the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 298,104 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $142,041,000 after buying an additional 10,434 shares in the last quarter. Katamaran Capital LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the third quarter valued at $4,275,000. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 39.0% in the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 15,130 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,209,000 after buying an additional 4,247 shares in the last quarter. MCF Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 51.5% in the third quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 7,677 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,658,000 after buying an additional 2,609 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 5.4% in the third quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 316,969 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $151,029,000 after buying an additional 16,099 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MCO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings cut Moody’s from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Moody’s from $600.00 to $560.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $531.00 price objective on Moody’s in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on Moody’s from $524.00 to $521.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Moody’s currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $544.29.

Moody’s Trading Up 0.5%

NYSE:MCO opened at $451.54 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $78.88 billion, a PE ratio of 32.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.35. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $447.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $470.24. Moody’s Corporation has a 12-month low of $402.28 and a 12-month high of $546.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its 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. The firm had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 70.97% and a net margin of 31.69%.Moody’s’s revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.83 earnings per share. Moody’s has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.400-17.000 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Moody’s Corporation will post 16.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 5th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a $1.03 dividend. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.53%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,467 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.39, for a total value of $684,194.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 75,189 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,067,397.71. This trade represents a 1.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 158 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $453.67, for a total value of $71,679.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 1,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $900,534.95. This trade represents 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 quarter, insiders sold 4,717 shares of company stock valued at $2,137,306. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Moody’s

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.