49,902 Shares in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Acquired by Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd.

Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 49,902 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $23,646,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Moody’s by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,696,081 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,956,684,000 after acquiring an additional 63,820 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,680,799 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,738,645,000 after purchasing an additional 68,627 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the fourth quarter worth about $988,750,000. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,537,331 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $727,726,000 after buying an additional 53,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in Moody’s by 73.6% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,131,656 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $534,255,000 after buying an additional 479,599 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Stock Down 9.2 %

NYSE:MCO opened at $401.74 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $72.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.38. Moody’s Co. has a twelve month low of $360.05 and a twelve month high of $531.93. 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 has a fifty day simple moving average of $482.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $478.93.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced 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 analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. Analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction of $133,087.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $29,314,236.28. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,258 shares of company stock worth $610,936. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho started coverage on Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, February 14th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Moody’s from $570.00 to $520.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Moody’s presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $523.43.

Moody’s 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.