US Bancorp DE Grows Stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 22,121 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 417 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $10,472,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MCO. Planning Capital Management Corp grew its stake in Moody’s by 566.7% during the 3rd quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 60 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Moody’s by 272.2% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 67 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Moody’s during the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. Asset Planning Inc purchased a new stake in Moody’s during the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Albion Financial Group UT purchased a new stake in 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $522.20, for a total value of $146,738.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,321,046.80. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of MCO stock opened at $501.19 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $90.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31. Moody’s Co. has a one year low of $360.05 and a one year high of $531.93. 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 firm’s 50 day moving average price is $490.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $482.65.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is 33.36%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MCO. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” 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 report on Friday, January 3rd. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $528.77.

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.