Schroder Investment Management Group Has $239.66 Million Stock Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Schroder Investment Management Group increased its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 506,282 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,775 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group owned 0.28% of Moody’s worth $239,659,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 272.2% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 67 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Asset Planning Inc bought a new position in Moody’s in the 4th quarter valued at $42,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Albion Financial Group UT bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the fourth quarter worth $45,000. Finally, Activest Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s during the fourth quarter valued at $47,000. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other 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 completion of 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock worth $552,193. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Mizuho assumed coverage on Moody’s in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $527.00.

Moody’s Trading Down 1.7 %

MCO opened at $461.09 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $82.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. Moody’s Co. has a 12 month low of $360.05 and a 12 month high of $531.93. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $485.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $480.00.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

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

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.