Maple Capital Management Inc. Sells 23 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Maple Capital Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 1.0% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,182 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 23 shares during the quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $1,036,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MCO. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 4.4% in the first quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 2,988 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,174,000 after buying an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. RFG Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 5.0% in the first quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 1,133 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $445,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 50.3% in the first quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 852 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $336,000 after buying an additional 285 shares during the last quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 10.5% in the first quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 360,979 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $141,876,000 after buying an additional 34,370 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Moody’s in the first quarter worth about $2,967,000. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on MCO. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Moody’s from $451.00 to $462.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Moody’s from $455.00 to $464.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Moody’s from $492.00 to $536.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $488.46.

Moody’s Price Performance

Moody’s stock opened at $481.50 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $87.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.16, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $298.86 and a 1 year high of $495.10. The business has a 50-day moving average of $478.03 and a 200-day moving average of $436.86. 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 earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.75 by $0.46. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.03% and a net margin of 28.34%. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.43 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 11.46 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total transaction of $848,010.66. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,040 shares in the company, valued at $473,647.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total transaction of $848,010.66. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,040 shares in the company, valued at $473,647.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total value of $232,030.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 6,647 shares in the company, 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. Insiders have sold 2,931 shares of company stock worth $1,332,825 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.