Level Four Advisory Services LLC Sells 115 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Level Four Advisory Services LLC cut its stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 18.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 494 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 115 shares during the period. Level Four Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $234,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Townsquare Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 44.3% during the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 2,318 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,100,000 after acquiring an additional 712 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC grew its stake in Moody’s by 164.1% in the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 1,436 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $682,000 after purchasing an additional 3,676 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its holdings in Moody’s by 890.2% during the 3rd quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 5,159 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,448,000 after purchasing an additional 4,638 shares during the period. Bamco Inc. NY increased its holdings in Moody’s by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 37,741 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $17,912,000 after purchasing an additional 1,577 shares during the period. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its position in Moody’s by 4,300.0% during the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 3,124 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,483,000 after purchasing an additional 3,053 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total value of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $29,314,236.28. This trade represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Moody’s Price Performance

Shares of MCO stock opened at $468.29 on Wednesday. Moody’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $360.05 and a fifty-two week 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 has a market capitalization of $84.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.55, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $485.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $479.86.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a $0.94 dividend. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.80%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MCO has been the topic of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Mizuho began coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 price target for the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $527.00.

About Moody’s

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.