AQR Capital Management LLC Increases Stock Position in Moody's Corporation $MCO

Key Points

• AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Moody's Corporation by 120.8%, now holding shares worth $17.12 million after acquiring additional shares in the first quarter.
• Moody's reported earnings of $3.56 per share for the last quarter, surpassing estimates, with revenue of $1.90 billion, a year-over-year increase of 4.5%.
• The stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from analysts, with a price target averaging $540.57 following recent upgrades by several brokerages.

AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Moody's Corporation (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) by 120.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 37,389 shares of the business services provider's stock after buying an additional 20,458 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC's holdings in Moody's were worth $17,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Aprio Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Moody's by 10.7% during the first quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 964 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $449,000 after buying an additional 93 shares during the period. 11 Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in Moody's by 49.4% during the first quarter. 11 Capital Partners LP now owns 35,010 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $16,304,000 after buying an additional 11,576 shares during the period. Promethium Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Moody's by 68.2% during the first quarter. Promethium Advisors LLC now owns 1,928 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $898,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the period. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec increased its holdings in Moody's by 155.6% during the first quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 33,934 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $15,804,000 after buying an additional 20,657 shares during the period. Finally, Perbak Capital Partners LLP purchased a new position in Moody's in the first quarter worth $271,000. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on MCO shares. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Moody's from $552.00 to $563.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Moody's from $445.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Moody's from $520.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Moody's from $573.00 to $595.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Moody's from $493.00 to $498.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Moody's has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $540.57.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of Moody's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $521.45, for a total transaction of $216,401.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 61,618 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $32,130,706.10. The trade was a 0.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 2,120 shares of Moody's stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider directly 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,008 shares of company stock worth $4,599,385 over the last three months. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Moody's Trading Down 1.2%

Moody's stock traded down $6.38 during trading on Friday, hitting $512.32. The company had a trading volume of 490,129 shares, compared to its average volume of 565,071. Moody's Corporation has a 1-year low of $378.71 and a 1-year high of $531.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $508.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $479.78. The stock has a market cap of $91.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.42.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.39 by $0.17. Moody's had a net margin of 29.18% and a return on equity of 60.73%. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.28 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. Moody's has set its FY 2025 guidance at 13.500-14.000 EPS. As a group, analysts expect 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were given a $0.94 dividend. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. Moody's's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.95%.

Moody's 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.