Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Shares Sold by Sage Mountain Advisors LLC

Sage Mountain Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 10.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 606 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 73 shares during the period. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $287,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MCO. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in Moody’s by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 2,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $983,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. raised its holdings in Moody’s by 17.8% in the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 456 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $216,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in Moody’s by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 373,634 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $177,323,000 after acquiring an additional 5,694 shares during the last quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,454 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,165,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,061 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $504,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Citigroup initiated coverage on Moody’s in a report on Friday, December 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $527.00.

Moody’s Stock Performance

NYSE:MCO opened at $441.64 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $487.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $481.97. The stock has a market cap of $79.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.19, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. Moody’s Co. has a 1-year low of $360.05 and a 1-year high of $531.93.

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

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a $0.94 dividend. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is 33.36%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $474.86, for a total value of $133,435.66. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,390,984.84. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Moody’s Company 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.