Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. Sells 240 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. cut its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,952 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 240 shares during the quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $4,238,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of MCO. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Moody’s in the third quarter worth approximately $273,000. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Moody’s by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 722 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $343,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 272.2% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 67 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 31.9% in the third quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 1,051 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $499,000 after purchasing an additional 254 shares during the last quarter. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 9.4% during the third quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 2,880 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,367,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on MCO shares. Mizuho assumed coverage on Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of 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 raised their target price on shares of Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target 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 research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $527.00.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $461.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.67. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $360.05 and a 1 year high of $531.93. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $485.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $480.03. The stock has a market cap of $82.95 billion, a PE ratio of 40.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion for 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%. Equities analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.36%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,314,236.28. This trade represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Company 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.