Machina Capital S.A.S. Lowers Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Machina Capital S.A.S. trimmed its holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 87.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 713 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 5,152 shares during the quarter. Machina Capital S.A.S.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $278,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MCO. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 2.1% during the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 18,162 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,742,000 after buying an additional 376 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 8.1% during the third quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 4,305 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,361,000 after buying an additional 322 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 11.2% during the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 653 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $207,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 7.0% during the third quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,394 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $757,000 after buying an additional 156 shares during the period. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 4.0% during the third quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $355,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MCO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Moody’s from $455.00 to $420.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Moody’s from $420.00 to $410.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $350.00 to $374.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Moody’s from $430.00 to $414.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Moody’s presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $400.50.

Moody’s Stock Up 1.6 %

NYSE:MCO traded up $6.27 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $393.97. 749,371 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 737,031. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68. Moody’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $298.86 and a fifty-two week high of $407.62. The company has a market capitalization of $71.94 billion, a PE ratio of 42.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $384.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $374.55.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $3.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 54.50% and a net margin of 27.01%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 21.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.99 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Moody’s Co. will post 10.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.86%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.12%.

Moody’s 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.