Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Shares Bought by APG Asset Management N.V.

APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 285.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 107,582 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 79,689 shares during the quarter. APG Asset Management N.V.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $49,180,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MCO. Advisory Services Network LLC increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 3,308 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,566,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Abacus FCF Advisors LLC grew its stake in Moody’s by 45.2% in the fourth quarter. Abacus FCF Advisors LLC now owns 10,360 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,904,000 after purchasing an additional 3,224 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its holdings in Moody’s by 27.0% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 98,880 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $46,844,000 after buying an additional 21,030 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd raised its stake in Moody’s by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 72,510 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $34,324,000 after buying an additional 2,399 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rathbones Group PLC grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 12.3% in the 4th quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 7,794 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,689,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $494.42, for a total value of $138,932.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,601,631.48. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,258 shares of company stock worth $610,936. 0.14% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MCO has been the topic of several research reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Barclays lowered their target price on Moody’s from $570.00 to $520.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $523.43.

Moody’s Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $396.41 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $476.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $476.98. Moody’s Co. has a 52 week low of $360.05 and a 52 week high of $531.93. The stock has a market cap of $71.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.17, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 predict that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.95%. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Moody’s’s payout ratio is currently 33.36%.

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.