Blueshift Asset Management LLC Sells 1,000 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Blueshift Asset Management LLC reduced its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 58.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 717 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,000 shares during the quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $339,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Avitas Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Moody’s by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Avitas Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,803 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,327,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC raised its stake in Moody’s by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 451 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $213,000 after buying an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Okabena Investment Services Inc. lifted its holdings in Moody’s by 0.8% in the third quarter. Okabena Investment Services Inc. now owns 2,767 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,313,000 after buying an additional 23 shares during the period. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Moody’s by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. now owns 746 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $353,000 after buying an additional 23 shares during the period. Finally, CX Institutional grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,113 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $527,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on MCO. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Mizuho initiated coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 target price for the company. Citigroup assumed coverage on Moody’s in a research report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Moody’s has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $527.00.

Moody’s Trading Down 0.0 %

MCO stock opened at $459.73 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $485.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $480.45. Moody’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $360.05 and a fifty-two week high of $531.93. The firm has a market cap of $82.70 billion, a PE ratio of 40.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a $0.94 dividend. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.82%. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.36%.

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 transaction 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. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.