Rhumbline Advisers buys 6,982 shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Rhumbline Advisers grew its position in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO – Free Report) by 2.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 336,366 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,982 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers owned approximately 0.18% of Moody’s worth $141,586,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Benjamin Edwards Inc. bought a new position in Moody’s in the first quarter worth $25,000. New Covenant Trust Company NA bought a new position in shares of Moody’s in the first quarter worth about $27,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of Moody’s by 114.3% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 75 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Moody’s in the 1st quarter worth approximately $38,000. 92.11% of shares are currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst upgrades and downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on MCO. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $430.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. BMO Capital Markets cut Moody’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $455.00 in a research report on Wednesday. July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $443.00 to $454.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $454.00 to $492.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $374.00 to $392.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Moody’s presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $460.46, based on data from MarketBeat.

Read our latest research report on MCO

Insider trading at Moody’s

In related news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total value of $252,783.94. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,147 shares in the company, valued at $3,619,386.22. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available on the SEC’s website. In other Moody’s news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $464.06, for a total value of $232,030.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 6,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,084,606.82. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC’s website. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 569 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.26, for a total transaction of $252,783.94. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,147 shares in the company, valued at $3,619,386.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,931 shares of company stock worth $1,332,825 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s shares.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of Moody’s stock opened at $481.72 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $453.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $414.67. Moody’s Co. it has a fifty-two week low of $298.86 and a fifty-two week high of $490.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.52, and a quick ratio of 1.52. The firm has a market cap of $87.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.28.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO – Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.03% and a net margin of 28.34%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. In the same quarter last year, the company posted earnings of $2.30 per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 11.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a dividend of $3.40 on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16. Moody’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.12%.

About Moody’s

(Free Report)

Moody’s Corporation operates as an integrated global risk rating firm. It operates in two segments, Moody’s Analytics and Moody’s Investors Services. Moody’s Analytics segment develops a range of products and services that support the risk management activities of institutional participants in the financial markets.

Further reading

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