Brokerages Set Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) PT at $543.07

Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nineteen research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twelve have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $543.0667.

A number of research analysts have commented on MCO shares. Mizuho upped their price objective on Moody’s from $539.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Moody’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Moody’s from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Moody’s from $597.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,167 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.95, for a total transaction of $558,934.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 61,082 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,255,223.90. This represents a 1.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,569 shares of company stock valued at $1,253,848. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MCO. Harbour Investments Inc. increased its holdings in Moody’s by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 482 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $225,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the period. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the 1st quarter worth approximately $110,000. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. boosted its position in shares of Moody’s by 94.6% during the 1st quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 3,585 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,670,000 after acquiring an additional 1,743 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in Moody’s by 21.2% in the first quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 257 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $120,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ABC Arbitrage SA acquired a new position in Moody’s during the first quarter valued at approximately $841,000. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Stock Up 1.4%

Moody’s stock opened at $496.51 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $483.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $492.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70. The stock has a market cap of $88.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.45. Moody’s has a twelve month low of $378.71 and a twelve month high of $531.93.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $2.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.92 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 63.58% and a net margin of 29.92%.The business’s revenue was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.21 earnings per share. Moody’s has set its FY 2025 guidance at 14.500-14.750 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Moody’s will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Investors of record on Friday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.94 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 21st. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.23%.

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.