Kentucky Retirement Systems Lowers Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Kentucky Retirement Systems lowered its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 10,762 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 148 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Moody’s were worth $5,094,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Allworth Financial LP raised its position in shares of Moody’s by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,001 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $485,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its stake in Moody’s by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 18,718 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,861,000 after acquiring an additional 1,164 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 11.2% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 62,913 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $29,858,000 after purchasing an additional 6,340 shares during the period. Fiduciary Alliance LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 32.5% in the 4th quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 14,316 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,777,000 after purchasing an additional 3,510 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Burney Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the 4th quarter worth about $6,775,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Trading Down 2.3 %

Shares of MCO opened at $499.62 on Friday. Moody’s Co. has a one year low of $360.05 and a one year high of $531.93. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $487.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $480.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a market capitalization of $89.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.31.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Moody’s’s payout ratio is presently 30.17%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $474.86, for a total value of $133,435.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,390,984.84. This trade represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on MCO. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup assumed coverage on Moody’s in a report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price target for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $528.77.

About Moody’s

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.