Brokerages Set Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) Target Price at $543.27

Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nineteen analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $542.8667.

MCO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Moody’s from $595.00 to $597.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 19th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Moody’s in a report on Thursday, October 9th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Moody’s from $534.00 to $521.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Seaport Res Ptn raised Moody’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Moody’s from $570.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday.

Moody’s Price Performance

MCO stock opened at $470.72 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $84.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.99, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.41. Moody’s has a twelve month low of $378.71 and a twelve month high of $531.93. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $497.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $482.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.39 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 60.73% and a net margin of 29.18%.The company’s revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.28 earnings per share. Moody’s has set its FY 2025 guidance at 13.500-14.000 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Moody’s will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.95%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 2,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $511.18, for a total transaction of $1,083,701.60. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,841,138.44. This represents a 27.61% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael L. West sold 3,704 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $511.10, for a total transaction of $1,893,114.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 8,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,195,619.90. This represents a 31.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 9,423 shares of company stock valued at $4,802,876. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Moody’s by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,006,997 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,527,360,000 after buying an additional 191,368 shares in the last quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Moody’s by 0.6% in the second quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 13,246,979 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,644,552,000 after buying an additional 83,872 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Moody’s by 1.8% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,888,788 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,943,418,000 after buying an additional 69,455 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 2,574,948 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,291,568,000 after buying an additional 35,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 10.3% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,311,020 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,159,185,000 after buying an additional 215,551 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.