Teacher Retirement System of Texas Acquires 27,484 Shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 42.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 92,304 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 27,484 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Moody’s were worth $43,694,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MCO. Allworth Financial LP raised its position in Moody’s by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,001 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $485,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in Moody’s by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 67,560 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $31,981,000 after purchasing an additional 4,544 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its position in Moody’s by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 18,718 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $8,861,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in Moody’s by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 62,913 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $29,858,000 after purchasing an additional 6,340 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fiduciary Alliance LLC raised its position in Moody’s by 32.5% during the 4th quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 14,316 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,777,000 after purchasing an additional 3,510 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MCO. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Mizuho assumed coverage on Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $504.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moody’s has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $527.00.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of MCO opened at $459.57 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $485.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $480.65. Moody’s Co. has a one year low of $360.05 and a one year high of $531.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $82.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.35. Moody’s had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a dividend of $0.94 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.82%. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. Moody’s’s payout ratio is currently 33.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total transaction of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,314,236.28. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193. 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.