AIA Group Ltd Has $2.55 Million Stock Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

AIA Group Ltd raised its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 26.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 6,516 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,346 shares during the quarter. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $2,545,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Compass Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Ancora Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 4,900.0% in the first quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 98 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the first quarter worth $31,000. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the third quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Moody’s by 87.7% in the third quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 122 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Moody’s from $420.00 to $410.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Moody’s from $430.00 to $414.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Moody’s from $455.00 to $420.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Moody’s from $355.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Moody’s from $411.00 to $424.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $397.75.

Moody’s Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE MCO opened at $374.60 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $68.36 billion, a PE ratio of 42.91, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01. Moody’s Co. has a 12 month low of $296.45 and a 12 month high of $407.62. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $384.62 and a 200-day moving average of $368.73.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.19 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.33 by ($0.14). Moody’s had a net margin of 27.16% and a return on equity of 55.23%. The company had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.60 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 10.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.91%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.95%.

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.