Little House Capital LLC Has $280,000 Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Little House Capital LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 4.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 591 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 25 shares during the quarter. Little House Capital LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $280,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Moody’s by 74,000.1% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 724,699 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $343,935,000 after acquiring an additional 723,721 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,581,036 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,123,294,000 after purchasing an additional 723,226 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 32.0% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,075,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $985,115,000 after purchasing an additional 502,891 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 22.6% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,333,263 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,107,344,000 after purchasing an additional 430,878 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Moody’s by 13.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,172 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,708,851,000 after purchasing an additional 416,535 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MCO has been the subject of several analyst reports. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Friday. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, December 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $468.00 to $481.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $495.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $522.62.

Moody’s Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $522.76 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $484.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $478.65. The firm has a market cap of $94.72 billion, a PE ratio of 47.74, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. Moody’s Co. has a 1-year low of $360.05 and a 1-year high of $531.93.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.97% and a net margin of 29.05%. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Research analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 12.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.05%.

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total value of $133,087.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,314,236.28. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 843 shares of company stock valued at $405,455 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.