Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Shares Acquired by Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 13.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,651 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 424 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $1,728,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,047,772 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,344,802,000 after purchasing an additional 63,556 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,581,036 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,123,294,000 after purchasing an additional 723,226 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,612,172 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,708,851,000 after purchasing an additional 416,535 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 22.6% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,333,263 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,107,344,000 after buying an additional 430,878 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 32.0% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,075,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $985,115,000 after buying an additional 502,891 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on MCO. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, February 14th. Mizuho began coverage on Moody’s in a report on Wednesday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on Moody’s in a report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $527.00.

Moody’s Trading Up 2.0 %

MCO opened at $446.67 on Friday. Moody’s Co. has a one year low of $360.05 and a one year high of $531.93. The company has a market cap of $80.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.63, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $486.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $481.44.

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

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.84%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is 33.36%.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $474.86, for a total value of $133,435.66. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,390,984.84. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 in the last three months. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.