Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Trims Stock Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System reduced its stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,800 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $4,176,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Moody’s by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,283,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,613,867,000 after purchasing an additional 119,450 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Moody’s by 8.4% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,918,257 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,228,382,000 after purchasing an additional 225,846 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Moody’s by 133.9% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,277,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $958,481,000 after purchasing an additional 1,303,434 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd increased its stake in Moody’s by 1.2% during the second quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 1,980,021 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $833,450,000 after purchasing an additional 24,107 shares during the period. Finally, Windacre Partnership LLC increased its stake in Moody’s by 11.1% during the first quarter. Windacre Partnership LLC now owns 1,746,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $686,230,000 after purchasing an additional 173,900 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $500.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $455.00 to $464.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $521.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $430.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $490.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $500.00.

Moody’s Price Performance

MCO stock opened at $462.80 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $84.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.52, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29. Moody’s Co. has a twelve month low of $298.86 and a twelve month high of $495.10. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $478.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $438.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.03% and a net margin of 28.34%. The company’s revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.43 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 11.46 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be issued a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. Moody’s’s payout ratio is currently 37.12%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total value of $848,010.66. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $473,647.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total transaction of $848,010.66. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 1,040 shares in the company, valued at $473,647.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total value of $232,030.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 6,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,084,606.82. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,931 shares of company stock valued at $1,332,825. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Moody’s Profile

Moody’s Corporation operates as an integrated risk assessment firm worldwide. It operates in two segments, Moody’s Analytics and Moody’s Investors Services. The Moody’s Analytics segment develops a range of products and services that support the risk management activities of institutional participants in financial markets.