Ballentine Partners LLC Has $5.63 Million Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Ballentine Partners LLC grew its stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 2.1% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 11,856 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 240 shares during the quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $5,627,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in Moody’s in the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in Moody’s by 114.3% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 75 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd acquired a new stake in Moody’s in the 2nd quarter worth $35,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s during the first quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Asset Dedication LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 83.0% in the third quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 86 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MCO. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $536.00 to $543.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Raymond James cut Moody’s from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Moody’s from $510.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $500.00.

Moody’s Price Performance

Shares of MCO stock opened at $466.94 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $478.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $437.61. The company has a market cap of $85.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.98, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. Moody’s Co. has a twelve month low of $298.86 and a twelve month high of $495.10.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.03% and a net margin of 28.34%. Moody’s’s revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.43 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 11.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.12%.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total transaction of $252,783.94. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,619,386.22. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,862 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $455.43, for a total transaction of $848,010.66. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 1,040 shares in the company, valued at $473,647.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total transaction of $252,783.94. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,619,386.22. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,931 shares of company stock worth $1,332,825 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% 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.