Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. Buys New Shares in Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. bought a new stake in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 440 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $226,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Moody’s by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,815,629 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,899,490,000 after acquiring an additional 119,548 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Moody’s by 10.3% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,311,020 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,159,185,000 after acquiring an additional 215,551 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in Moody’s by 3.8% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 1,651,495 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $769,085,000 after acquiring an additional 60,816 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in Moody’s by 9.7% during the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,586,672 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $738,897,000 after acquiring an additional 140,128 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Moody’s by 21.0% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,530,582 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $712,777,000 after acquiring an additional 265,389 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Moody’s Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of MCO opened at $473.59 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $84.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.41. Moody’s Corporation has a one year low of $378.71 and a one year high of $531.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $500.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $482.75.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.39 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 60.73% and a net margin of 29.18%.Moody’s’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.28 earnings per share. Moody’s has set its FY 2025 guidance at 13.500-14.000 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.95%.

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In other Moody’s news, CFO Noemie Clemence Heuland sold 897 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $508.24, for a total transaction of $455,891.28. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 2,148 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,091,699.52. This trade represents a 29.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $512.65, for a total value of $212,749.75. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 61,350 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,451,077.50. This represents a 0.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,008 shares of company stock valued at $4,603,224 in the last three months. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on MCO shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Moody’s from $495.00 to $565.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $528.00 target price on Moody’s and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Barclays increased their target price on Moody’s from $520.00 to $580.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Moody’s from $595.00 to $597.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $520.00 target price on Moody’s in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moody’s currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $542.79.

About Moody’s

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.