Moody’s Co. (MCO) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.94 on March 14th

Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a dividend of 0.94 per share by the business services provider on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85.

Moody’s has raised its dividend by an average of 11.1% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 16 years. Moody’s has a payout ratio of 23.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Moody’s to earn $15.60 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.76 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.1%.

Moody’s Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MCO opened at $499.62 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $487.10 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $480.92. Moody’s has a 1-year low of $360.05 and a 1-year high of $531.93. The stock has a market cap of $89.93 billion, a PE ratio of 44.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.31.

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

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total value of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,314,236.28. This trade represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on MCO. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Citigroup assumed coverage on Moody’s in a research note on Friday, December 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $565.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Moody’s from $481.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $528.77.

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.