Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Acquires 87 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 3.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,300 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 87 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $898,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $153,532,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 73,752 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,645,000 after purchasing an additional 976 shares in the last quarter. White Pine Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $244,000. Finally, Walter Public Investments Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 24.3% in the 4th quarter. Walter Public Investments Inc. now owns 37,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $14,479,000 after purchasing an additional 7,250 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MCO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Moody’s from $455.00 to $420.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Oppenheimer cut their target price on shares of Moody’s from $427.00 to $411.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Moody’s from $362.00 to $350.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Moody’s from $430.00 to $414.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $390.42.

Moody’s Stock Up 0.8 %

MCO traded up $3.22 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $393.46. 318,554 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 716,805. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a current ratio of 1.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $71.81 billion, a PE ratio of 44.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $386.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $362.64. Moody’s Co. has a 1 year low of $290.98 and a 1 year high of $407.62.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.19 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.33 by ($0.14). Moody’s had a return on equity of 55.23% and a net margin of 27.16%. The business had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.48 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.60 EPS. Moody’s’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 10.7 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a $0.85 dividend. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.95%.

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 2,547 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.50, for a total transaction of $958,945.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,368,273.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.