Barclays Raises Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) Price Target to $350.00

Posted by on Jul 30th, 2023

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO – Free Report) had its target price hoisted by Barclays from $300.00 to $350.00 in a research report released on Wednesday, FlyOnTheWall reports.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on MCO. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $300.00 to $323.00 in a report on Monday, July 10th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $342.00 to $349.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, April 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Moody’s from $328.00 to $362.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Monday, July 3rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Moody’s from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Friday, July 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $312.00 to $346.00 in a report on Thursday, July 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $325.53.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Moody’s stock opened at $353.46 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $64.86 billion, a PE ratio of 45.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $339.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $316.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.09, a current ratio of 1.65 and a quick ratio of 1.48. Moody’s has a 12 month low of $230.16 and a 12 month high of $363.19.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 25th. The business services provider reported $2.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.23 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.45 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 25.81% and a return on equity of 55.98%. The firm’s revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.22 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Moody’s will post 10.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 18th will be given a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 17th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.69%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 418 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.13, for a total value of $143,846.34. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 65,838 shares in the company, valued at $22,656,830.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 3,292 shares of company stock worth $1,085,712. 0.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Moody’s

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its holdings in Moody’s by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 318,638 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $88,779,000 after buying an additional 2,119 shares during the period. Dupont Capital Management Corp raised its holdings in Moody’s by 10.6% during the 1st quarter. Dupont Capital Management Corp now owns 33,691 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,310,000 after buying an additional 3,224 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its holdings in Moody’s by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 8,554 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,383,000 after buying an additional 501 shares during the period. Marshall Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Moody’s by 18.3% during the 4th quarter. Marshall Financial Group LLC now owns 4,696 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,308,000 after acquiring an additional 726 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in Moody’s by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 69,344 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $19,321,000 after acquiring an additional 301 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.47% of the company’s stock.

About Moody’s

(Get Free Report)

Moody's Corporation operates as an integrated risk assessment firm worldwide. It operates in two segments, Moody's Investors Service and Moody's Analytics. The Moody's Investors Service segment publishes credit ratings and provides assessment services on various debt obligations, programs and facilities, and entities that issue such obligations, such as various corporate, financial institution, and governmental obligations, as well as and structured finance securities.

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