Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY Buys 71 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 58,295 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the quarter. Moody’s comprises approximately 1.5% of Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest position. Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $27,595,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MCO. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 12.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,581,036 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,123,294,000 after buying an additional 723,226 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 92,060.2% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 612,865 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $290,112,000 after buying an additional 612,200 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 502,891 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 430,878 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 13.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,172 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,708,851,000 after buying an additional 416,535 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on MCO shares. Citigroup started coverage on Moody’s in a research note on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price target for the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $528.77.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Moody’s stock opened at $503.63 on Friday. Moody’s Co. has a 12-month low of $360.05 and a 12-month high of $531.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $489.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $482.18. The stock has a market cap of $90.65 billion, a PE ratio of 44.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. Moody’s had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 33.36%.

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.