615 Shares in Moody's Corporation (NYSE:MCO) Acquired by Ballast Inc.

Key Points

• Ballast Inc. acquired 615 shares of Moody's Corporation, valued at approximately $286,000, marking a new position in the company in the first quarter.
• Moody's reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $3.56, exceeding the consensus estimate of $3.39, alongside a revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter.
• The company has announced a quarterly dividend of $0.94 per share, with a payout ratio of 31.95%, to be paid on September 5th to shareholders of record by August 15th.

Ballast Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Moody's Corporation (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 615 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $286,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MCO. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC raised its stake in Moody's by 1,000.0% in the first quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 55 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Moody's by 5,050.0% in the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 103 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Bank Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Moody's in the first quarter valued at $49,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Moody's by 132.6% in the first quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 107 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Motco grew its holdings in shares of Moody's by 581.3% during the first quarter. Motco now owns 109 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on MCO. UBS Group raised their price objective on Moody's from $445.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Moody's from $509.00 to $534.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Moody's in a report on Wednesday, June 4th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Moody's from $525.00 to $552.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Moody's from $520.00 to $580.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Moody's has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $538.80.

Moody's Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of Moody's stock traded up $0.45 during trading on Thursday, reaching $521.58. The company had a trading volume of 531,923 shares, compared to its average volume of 796,545. The company has a market cap of $93.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.40. The firm's fifty day moving average is $498.01 and its 200-day moving average is $479.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. Moody's Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $378.71 and a fifty-two week high of $531.93.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.39 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Moody's had a net margin of 29.18% and a return on equity of 60.73%. Moody's's quarterly revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.28 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Moody's Corporation will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

Moody's Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.94 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Moody's's dividend payout ratio is 31.95%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $503.40, for a total transaction of $208,911.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 61,886 shares in the company, valued at $31,153,412.40. This represents a 0.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 2,120 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $511.18, for a total transaction of $1,083,701.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 5,558 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,841,138.44. This trade represents a 27.61% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,593 shares of company stock valued at $4,382,984 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company's stock.

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.