Asset Management One Co. Ltd. Increases Stock Holdings in Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its position in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 2.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 71,591 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,742 shares during the quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $35,909,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 0.3% in the second quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 7,400 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,712,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 50.0% in the second quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 66 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 3.1% during the second quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 762 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $379,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 42.9% during the second quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 80 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Accretive Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 0.9% during the second quarter. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,753 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,381,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on MCO. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays increased their price objective on Moody’s from $520.00 to $580.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Moody’s from $597.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Moody’s from $531.00 to $535.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $542.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $481.09, for a total value of $199,652.35. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 61,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,385,939.38. The trade was a 0.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Michael L. West sold 3,704 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $511.10, for a total value of $1,893,114.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 8,209 shares in the company, valued at $4,195,619.90. This represents a 31.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 9,423 shares of company stock worth $4,802,876. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Moody’s Stock Up 2.3%

Shares of NYSE:MCO opened at $490.54 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $493.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $484.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70. Moody’s Corporation has a 12-month low of $378.71 and a 12-month high of $531.93. The firm has a market cap of $87.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.43, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.41.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.22. Moody’s had a return on equity of 63.58% and a net margin of 29.92%.The firm had revenue of $2.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.92 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.21 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. Moody’s has set its FY 2025 guidance at 14.500-14.750 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 21st will be paid a $0.94 dividend. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 21st. Moody’s’s payout ratio is currently 30.23%.

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.