Maestria Partners LLC Purchases New Holdings in Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Maestria Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 40,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $17,450,000. Moody’s makes up about 6.4% of Maestria Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MCO. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Birchwood Financial Partners Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Caitlin John LLC acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s in the third quarter valued at $27,000. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC bought a new position in Moody’s in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Ares Financial Consulting LLC bought a new position in Moody’s in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on MCO shares. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Moody’s from $526.00 to $489.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 21st. Finally, Wolfe Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $535.00 price target on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $541.83.

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In related news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 158 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $453.67, for a total transaction of $71,679.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 1,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $900,534.95. This trade represents a 7.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,467 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $453.67, for a total transaction of $665,533.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 52,564 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,846,709.88. This trade represents a 2.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 4,717 shares of company stock valued at $2,137,306 in the last quarter. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Moody’s Price Performance

Shares of MCO stock opened at $451.20 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $450.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $468.13. Moody’s Corporation has a one year low of $402.28 and a one year high of $546.88. The firm has a market cap of $78.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 1.16.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The business services provider reported $4.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.22 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 70.97% and a net margin of 31.69%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.83 earnings per share. Moody’s has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.400-17.000 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Moody’s Corporation will post 16.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.53%.

Moody’s Company Profile

Moody’s Corporation is a global provider of credit ratings, research, data and analytics that support financial decision-making and transparency in capital markets. The company traces its origins to the early 20th century when financial analyst John Moody began publishing credit information; today Moody’s is headquartered in New York and serves a broad set of market participants including investors, issuers, financial institutions, corporations, governments and regulators.

Moody’s operates primarily through two complementary businesses.