E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. Acquires Shares of 111 Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 111 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $53,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Financial Advocates Investment Management increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 1,005 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $477,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 20.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 4,799 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,277,000 after buying an additional 827 shares during the period. Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda. increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 79.2% in the 3rd quarter. Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda. now owns 4,480 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,126,000 after buying an additional 1,980 shares during the period. Edge Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 3rd quarter valued at $239,000. Finally, Avitas Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Moody’s by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Avitas Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,781 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,320,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Caroline Sullivan sold 1,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.40, for a total value of $777,294.40. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,415 shares in the company, valued at $654,296. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, SVP Caroline Sullivan sold 1,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.40, for a total value of $777,294.40. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,415 shares in the company, valued at $654,296. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total value of $232,030.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 6,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,084,606.82. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,612 shares of company stock worth $2,110,119 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MCO has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Moody’s from $510.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com cut Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Moody’s from $455.00 to $464.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Moody’s from $500.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Moody’s in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $521.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Moody’s has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $500.00.

Moody’s Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE:MCO opened at $458.90 on Thursday. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $303.98 and a 1 year high of $495.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. The stock has a market cap of $83.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.10, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $477.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $440.21.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.32. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.03% and a net margin of 28.34%. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.43 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 11.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be issued a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.12%.

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.