Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) Shares Sold by Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd

Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd decreased its position in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 890 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 37 shares during the quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $348,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s during the third quarter worth about $153,532,000. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 39.7% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,510,986 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $477,728,000 after buying an additional 429,473 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 32,275.4% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 221,448 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $86,489,000 after buying an additional 220,764 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 40.3% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 720,091 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $227,671,000 after buying an additional 206,698 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 5.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,301,253 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,359,927,000 after buying an additional 205,800 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Moody’s from $425.00 to $405.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Barclays raised 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 report on Tuesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $420.00 to $410.00 and set an “overweight” 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moody’s currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $397.75.

Moody’s Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Moody’s stock traded down $0.96 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $381.21. 568,374 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 715,384. Moody’s Co. has a twelve month low of $296.45 and a twelve month high of $407.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $383.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $370.87. 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 (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.33 by ($0.14). Moody’s had a return on equity of 55.23% and a net margin of 27.16%. The firm had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.60 earnings per share. Moody’s’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 10.77 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.