Employees Provident Fund Board Invests $153.25 Million in Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Employees Provident Fund Board bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 300,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $153,255,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Moody’s by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,272,967 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,802,195,000 after buying an additional 102,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Moody’s by 1.1% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Moody’s by 4.9% during the fourth 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. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,370,601 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,211,023,000 after buying an additional 62,798 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Moody’s in the fourth quarter worth $1,097,101,000. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MCO. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Moody’s from $526.00 to $489.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $535.00 price objective on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $500.00 price objective on Moody’s in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $560.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $541.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,467 shares of the business’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 $665,533.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,564 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,846,709.88. The trade was a 2.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available 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 stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the senior vice president directly owned 1,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $900,534.95. This represents a 7.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 4,717 shares of company stock worth $2,137,306 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Stock Up 0.1%

NYSE MCO opened at $451.20 on Friday. 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 $78.82 billion, a PE ratio of 32.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.35. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $450.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $468.26. Moody’s Corporation has a 52 week low of $402.28 and a 52 week high of $546.88.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The business services provider reported $4.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.22 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 31.69% and a return on equity of 70.97%. The business’s revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.83 EPS. Moody’s has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.400-17.000 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Moody’s Corporation will post 16.69 earnings per share for the current 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. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.