OmniStar Financial Group Inc. Buys Shares of 1,567 Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

OmniStar Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,567 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $744,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MCO. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 18.6% during the 3rd quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $533,000 after buying an additional 176 shares during the period. V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 3,130 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,485,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 17,554 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,331,000 after buying an additional 698 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Vermont grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 1,145 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $543,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 3,482 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,652,000 after buying an additional 93 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on MCO. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $500.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $521.00 target price on the stock. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Moody’s from $455.00 to $464.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $488.46.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of Moody’s stock traded up $1.87 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $487.98. 149,307 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 737,881. Moody’s Co. has a 12-month low of $298.86 and a 12-month high of $495.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $89.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.08, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $477.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $434.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.52.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.22. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.03% and a net margin of 28.34%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.30 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 11.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,084,606.82. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Moody’s news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total transaction of $232,030.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 6,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,084,606.82. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total value 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 trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,931 shares of company stock valued at $1,332,825. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.