Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Sells 903 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado trimmed its position in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 4.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 21,881 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 903 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $10,358,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MCO. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Moody’s during the fourth quarter worth $988,750,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 92,060.2% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 612,865 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $290,112,000 after purchasing an additional 612,200 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 73.6% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,131,656 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $534,255,000 after acquiring an additional 479,599 shares during the period. Canoe Financial LP raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 510.8% during the fourth quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 422,624 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $200,058,000 after acquiring an additional 353,431 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the fourth quarter worth $150,376,000. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on MCO shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $533.00 to $468.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $475.00 to $456.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $570.00 to $520.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $530.00 price target on the stock. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $515.87.

Moody’s Price Performance

NYSE:MCO opened at $440.02 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $453.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $472.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $79.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.38. Moody’s Co. has a 12-month low of $360.05 and a 12-month high of $531.93.

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

Moody’s Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $463.08, for a total transaction of $192,178.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 62,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,092,537.92. This trade represents a 0.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold 1,392 shares of company stock worth $659,535 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

About Moody’s

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.