AMJ Financial Wealth Management Buys Shares of 659 Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

AMJ Financial Wealth Management purchased a new position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 659 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $312,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Planning Capital Management Corp grew its position in Moody’s by 566.7% in the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 60 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted 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. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s in the 3rd quarter worth about $36,000. Asset Planning Inc bought a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Albion Financial Group UT purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 4th quarter valued at about $45,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on MCO. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price 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 boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com cut Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on Moody’s in a research note on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $528.77.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the 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 owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,314,236.28. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE MCO opened at $501.19 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47. Moody’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $360.05 and a fifty-two week high of $531.93. The stock has a market cap of $90.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $490.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $482.65.

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

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a $0.94 dividend. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.36%.

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.