CenterBook Partners LP Sells 8,354 Shares of Moody’s Corporation $MCO

CenterBook Partners LP cut its stake in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 78.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,317 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 8,354 shares during the quarter. CenterBook Partners LP’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $1,184,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MCO. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Moody’s by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,272,967 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,802,195,000 after acquiring an additional 102,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,965,480 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,019,551,000 after acquiring an additional 42,966 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,375,768 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,213,661,000 after purchasing an additional 111,725 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 4th quarter valued at $1,097,101,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,447,105 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $689,517,000 after purchasing an additional 91,463 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MCO. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Moody’s from $524.00 to $521.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $610.00 price objective on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $526.00 to $489.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Moody’s from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Barclays decreased 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. One investment 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.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $544.29.

Insider Activity

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,467 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $453.67, for a total transaction of $665,533.89. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,564 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,846,709.88. This represents a 2.72% decrease in their position. 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 the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were 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 directly owned 1,985 shares in the company, valued at $900,534.95. This trade represents a 7.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 4,717 shares of company stock valued at $2,137,306 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:MCO opened at $450.90 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03. The firm has a market cap of $78.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.35. Moody’s Corporation has a 12 month low of $402.28 and a 12 month high of $546.88. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $448.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $469.72.

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

Moody’s Announces Dividend

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

Moody’s 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.