11 Capital Partners LP Boosts Stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

11 Capital Partners LP lifted its position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,434 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the quarter. Moody’s accounts for about 4.5% of 11 Capital Partners LP’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest holding. 11 Capital Partners LP’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $11,093,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MCO. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new stake in Moody’s in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Asset Planning Inc bought a new stake in Moody’s in the fourth quarter valued at $42,000. Albion Financial Group UT bought a new stake in Moody’s in the fourth quarter valued at $45,000. Activest Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the 4th quarter valued at $47,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 80.6% during the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 121 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MCO has been the topic of a number of research reports. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com lowered Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Moody’s from $475.00 to $456.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Moody’s from $533.00 to $468.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Moody’s from $585.00 to $495.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moody’s presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $515.87.

Moody’s Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of MCO stock opened at $440.02 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $453.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $472.78. Moody’s Co. has a 1-year low of $360.05 and a 1-year high of $531.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The company has a market cap of $79.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.38.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.58 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $1.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. On average, research analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a $0.94 dividend. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.47%.

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $522.20, for a total value of $146,738.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,321,046.80. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,392 shares of company stock valued at $659,535. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Moody’s 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.