Macquarie Group Ltd. Increases Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Posted by on Mar 7th, 2023

Macquarie Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO – Get Rating) by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 31,646 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,926 shares during the period. Macquarie Group Ltd.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $7,693,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Eaton Vance Management boosted its stake in Moody’s by 0.6% during the third quarter. Eaton Vance Management now owns 355,628 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $86,456,000 after buying an additional 1,946 shares during the period. GHE LLC lifted its stake in Moody’s by 61.0% during the third quarter. GHE LLC now owns 16,503 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,012,000 after purchasing an additional 6,254 shares during the last quarter. Tudor Investment Corp Et Al lifted its stake in Moody’s by 99.9% during the third quarter. Tudor Investment Corp Et Al now owns 62,331 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $15,153,000 after purchasing an additional 31,144 shares during the last quarter. Heritage Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Moody’s by 2.6% during the third quarter. Heritage Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,712 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $902,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd lifted its stake in Moody’s by 193.0% during the third quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd now owns 28,873 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,019,000 after purchasing an additional 19,020 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.84% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Trading Up 1.6 %

NYSE:MCO opened at $303.48 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.75, a current ratio of 1.72 and a quick ratio of 1.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $55.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.30. Moody’s Co. has a one year low of $230.16 and a one year high of $346.22. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $303.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $285.68.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 31st. The business services provider reported $1.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $0.18. Moody’s had a return on equity of 62.08% and a net margin of 25.13%. The business had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. Moody’s’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Moody’s Co. will post 9.38 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 24th will be paid a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.01%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 23rd. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.40%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Raymond W. Mcdaniel sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.00, for a total transaction of $2,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 82,859 shares in the company, valued at $24,443,405. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Raymond W. Mcdaniel sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.00, for a total transaction of $2,950,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 82,859 shares in the company, valued at $24,443,405. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.15, for a total value of $570,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 67,838 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,344,005.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MCO shares. Atlantic Securities boosted their target price on Moody’s from $290.00 to $292.00 in a research note on Monday, November 7th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Moody’s from $309.00 to $342.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Moody’s from $261.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Moody’s from $294.00 to $293.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 4th. Finally, Raymond James downgraded Moody’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 1st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $307.67.

About Moody’s

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Moody’s Corp. engages in the provision of credit ratings, research, tools and analysis to the global capital markets. It operates through the following segments: Moody’s Investors Service (MIS) and Moody’s Analytics (MA). The MIS segment is a credit rating agency, which publishes credit ratings on debt obligations and the entities, including various corporate and governmental obligations, structured finance securities and commercial paper programs.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Moody's (NYSE:MCO)

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