Adero Partners LLC Acquires 24 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Adero Partners LLC raised its position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 660 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Adero Partners LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $313,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MCO. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 52.2% during the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 35,264 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $14,844,000 after acquiring an additional 12,099 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 9.3% during the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 35,046 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $13,774,000 after acquiring an additional 2,988 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 98.3% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 7,886 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,099,000 after acquiring an additional 3,909 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 204.2% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 18,753 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,371,000 after acquiring an additional 12,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the second quarter worth $141,336,000. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MCO. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Moody’s from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Moody’s from $460.00 to $514.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Moody’s from $490.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Moody’s from $451.00 to $462.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Moody’s currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $500.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, SVP Caroline Sullivan sold 1,681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.40, for a total value of $777,294.40. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $654,296. This trade represents a 54.30 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Price Performance

NYSE:MCO opened at $473.31 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.67. Moody’s Co. has a 52 week low of $352.17 and a 52 week high of $495.10. The firm has a market cap of $85.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.22, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.29. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $473.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $448.02.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.32. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.05% and a return on equity of 57.97%. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.43 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 12.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be issued a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.05%.

Moody’s 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.