Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Increases Stock Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,352 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 231 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $4,824,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MCO. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 0.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,974,432 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,418,296,000 after purchasing an additional 88,667 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 5.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,301,253 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,359,927,000 after purchasing an additional 205,800 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 3.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,661,998 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $525,474,000 after purchasing an additional 59,476 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,515,430 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $591,867,000 after purchasing an additional 4,444 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 1.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 873,782 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $276,264,000 after purchasing an additional 9,420 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MCO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $355.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $411.00 to $424.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Moody’s from $362.00 to $350.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Barclays raised Moody’s from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $375.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $398.50.

Moody’s Stock Performance

NYSE MCO traded up $7.33 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $387.89. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 781,325 shares, compared to its average volume of 736,934. Moody’s Co. has a 12 month low of $298.86 and a 12 month high of $407.62. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $384.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $374.55. The company has a market cap of $70.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $3.37 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.31. Moody’s had a return on equity of 54.50% and a net margin of 27.01%. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.99 EPS. Moody’s’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 10.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.88%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.12%.

Moody’s Company Profile

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.