Fielder Capital Group LLC Takes Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Fielder Capital Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,270 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $601,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MCO. Allworth Financial LP increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,001 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $485,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its holdings in Moody’s by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 18,718 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $8,861,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in Moody’s by 11.2% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 62,913 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $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% during the fourth quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 14,316 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $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 in the fourth quarter worth about $6,775,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on MCO shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price 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. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, December 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $528.77.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total value of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $29,314,236.28. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of Moody’s stock opened at $493.65 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $488.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $481.88. Moody’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $360.05 and a fifty-two week high of $531.93. The firm has a market cap of $88.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

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

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 33.36%.

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.