Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC Raises Stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC grew its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 5.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 911 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $356,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MCO. Wealthsource Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wealthsource Partners LLC now owns 3,522 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,114,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,580 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $499,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. Realta Investment Advisors raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Realta Investment Advisors now owns 997 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $389,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. PDS Planning Inc raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 1,015 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $321,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the period. Finally, Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $419,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Moody’s from $420.00 to $410.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. StockNews.com raised Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. UBS Group raised their target price on Moody’s from $355.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their target price on Moody’s from $411.00 to $424.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $397.75.

Moody’s Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE MCO traded down $5.88 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $375.33. 317,903 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 710,349. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.74. Moody’s Co. has a twelve month low of $296.45 and a twelve month high of $407.62. The company has a market cap of $68.50 billion, a PE ratio of 43.67, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.27. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $384.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $370.94.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.19 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.33 by ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 55.23% and a net margin of 27.16%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.60 EPS. Research analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 10.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were given a dividend of $0.85 per share. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.91%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 38.95%.

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.