SMART Wealth LLC Buys New Position in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO)

SMART Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 823 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $383,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MCO. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG grew its position in Moody’s by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 73,335 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $34,715,000 after buying an additional 10,350 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Moody’s in the 4th quarter valued at about $223,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Moody’s in the 4th quarter valued at about $281,000. Meridian Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Moody’s by 41.4% in the 4th quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC now owns 625 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $296,000 after buying an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its position in Moody’s by 15.9% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 2,960 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,401,000 after buying an additional 405 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on MCO shares. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $570.00 to $520.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research 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 objective for the company. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $572.00 to $573.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Moody’s presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $521.40.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of MCO opened at $504.42 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $477.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $472.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.57 and a quick ratio of 1.56. The stock has a market cap of $90.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.56, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.38. Moody’s Corporation has a one year low of $378.71 and a one year high of $531.93.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.58 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $1.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.15% and a return on equity of 60.37%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th were given a $0.94 dividend. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 16th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.47%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $437.80, for a total value of $181,687.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 62,690 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,445,682. This represents a 0.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.