First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown Takes Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 600 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $234,000.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd bought a new position in Moody’s in the 3rd quarter valued at $153,532,000. White Pine Capital LLC bought a new position in Moody’s in the 3rd quarter valued at $244,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its position in Moody’s by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 79,887 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $31,206,000 after acquiring an additional 11,580 shares during the last quarter. Walter Public Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 24.3% in the 4th quarter. Walter Public Investments Inc. now owns 37,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $14,479,000 after buying an additional 7,250 shares during the period. Finally, Banco Santander S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 323.3% in the 3rd quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 44,048 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $13,927,000 after buying an additional 33,642 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on MCO. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 target price on shares of Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Moody’s from $455.00 to $420.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Moody’s from $355.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Barclays upgraded Moody’s from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $375.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Moody’s from $430.00 to $414.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $397.75.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of MCO stock traded down $1.48 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $373.12. The stock had a trading volume of 193,179 shares, compared to its average volume of 713,577. The business’s fifty day moving average is $384.62 and its 200-day moving average is $368.73. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01. The firm has a market cap of $68.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.91, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.27. Moody’s Co. has a 1-year low of $296.45 and a 1-year high of $407.62.

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

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.91%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio 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.