Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Receives $427.75 Consensus PT from Analysts

Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twelve brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $448.50.

MCO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Moody’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $482.00 to $455.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $430.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $374.00 to $392.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 5th. StockNews.com raised shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Moody’s from $443.00 to $454.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of MCO opened at $448.75 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $422.75 and its 200-day moving average is $399.48. Moody’s has a 12 month low of $298.86 and a 12 month high of $458.24. The firm has a market cap of $81.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 28.34% and a return on equity of 57.03%. Moody’s’s quarterly revenue was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.30 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Moody’s will post 11.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 37.12%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moody’s

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Conning Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 778 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $327,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,357 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $571,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 960 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 23.0% during the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $59,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Advocates LLC increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC now owns 1,890 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $738,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.