Moody’s Corporation $MCO Position Trimmed by PineStone Asset Management Inc.

PineStone Asset Management Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 2.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,264,043 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 46,977 shares during the period. Moody’s accounts for 6.7% of PineStone Asset Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. PineStone Asset Management Inc. owned approximately 1.26% of Moody’s worth $1,078,771,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ieq Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Moody’s by 2.2% in the first quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 9,585 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,464,000 after acquiring an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. WPG Advisers LLC bought a new position in Moody’s in the 1st quarter worth about $136,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its stake in Moody’s by 36.9% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 167,465 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $77,987,000 after purchasing an additional 45,136 shares in the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Moody’s during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,181,000. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC increased its stake in Moody’s by 304.4% during the 1st quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 21,640 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $10,078,000 after purchasing an additional 16,289 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,167 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.95, for a total value of $558,934.65. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 61,082 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,255,223.90. This trade represents a 1.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 2,154 shares of company stock worth $1,041,098 over the last three months. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MCO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Moody’s from $534.00 to $507.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Moody’s from $597.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Moody’s from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $524.00 to $570.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Moody’s from $580.00 to $560.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $543.40.

Moody’s Stock Up 0.7%

Moody’s stock opened at $520.80 on Friday. Moody’s Corporation has a one year low of $378.71 and a one year high of $531.93. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $488.40 and a 200 day moving average of $494.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market cap of $92.91 billion, a PE ratio of 41.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.45.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.22. Moody’s had a return on equity of 63.58% and a net margin of 29.92%.The business had revenue of $2.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.21 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Moody’s has set its FY 2025 guidance at 14.500-14.750 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 21st were issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 21st. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.23%.

Moody’s Profile

Moody’s Corporation is a global provider of credit ratings, research, data and analytics that support financial decision-making and transparency in capital markets. The company traces its origins to the early 20th century when financial analyst John Moody began publishing credit information; today Moody’s is headquartered in New York and serves a broad set of market participants including investors, issuers, financial institutions, corporations, governments and regulators.

Moody’s operates primarily through two complementary businesses.