Brasada Capital Management LP Lowers Stock Position in Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Brasada Capital Management LP cut its stake in shares of Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 6.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 22,544 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,677 shares during the quarter. Moody’s accounts for approximately 1.9% of Brasada Capital Management LP’s holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Brasada Capital Management LP’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $11,270,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,272,967 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,802,195,000 after purchasing an additional 102,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,965,480 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,019,551,000 after purchasing an additional 42,966 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,375,768 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,213,661,000 after purchasing an additional 111,725 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,370,601 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,211,023,000 after purchasing an additional 62,798 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the fourth quarter worth $1,097,101,000. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MCO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $610.00 target price on shares of Moody’s in a report on Thursday, February 19th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Moody’s from $526.00 to $489.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Moody’s from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $565.00 target price on shares of Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $544.29.

Moody’s Price Performance

Moody’s stock opened at $448.12 on Friday. Moody’s Corporation has a one year low of $402.28 and a one year high of $546.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.16. The business has a fifty day moving average of $448.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $469.30. The company has a market cap of $78.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.35.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The business services provider reported $4.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.22 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 70.97% and a net margin of 31.69%.The business’s revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.83 EPS. Moody’s has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.400-17.000 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Moody’s Corporation will post 16.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th were paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 29.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In other news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 158 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.67, for a total transaction of $71,679.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 1,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $900,534.95. The trade was a 7.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,467 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.39, for a total value of $684,194.13. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 75,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,067,397.71. This trade represents a 1.91% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 4,717 shares of company stock valued at $2,137,306 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

About Moody’s

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.