Banque Pictet & Cie SA Sells 3,284 Shares of Moody's Corporation (NYSE:MCO)

Banque Pictet & Cie SA reduced its holdings in Moody's Corporation (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) by 2.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 116,733 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 3,284 shares during the quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA owned 0.06% of Moody's worth $54,361,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC raised its holdings in Moody's by 1,000.0% during the first quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 55 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Moody's in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Moody's by 5,050.0% in the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 103 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the period. Alpine Bank Wealth Management bought a new stake in Moody's in the 1st quarter valued at $49,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Moody's by 80.6% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 121 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Moody's from $475.00 to $456.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Moody's from $572.00 to $573.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Moody's from $493.00 to $498.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Moody's from $445.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Moody's from $570.00 to $520.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $519.07.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of Moody's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $437.80, for a total transaction of $181,687.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 62,690 shares of the company's stock, valued at $27,445,682. This trade represents a 0.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.14% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Moody's Trading Up 1.0%

NYSE MCO traded up $5.11 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $507.33. The company's stock had a trading volume of 216,918 shares, compared to its average volume of 764,559. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $481.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $473.33. The stock has a market cap of $91.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.38. Moody's Corporation has a 52 week low of $378.71 and a 52 week high of $531.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.57 and a quick ratio of 1.56.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.58 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $1.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.90 billion. Moody's had a return on equity of 60.37% and a net margin of 29.15%. Equities analysts forecast that Moody's Corporation will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody's Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th were paid a dividend of $0.94 per share. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 16th. Moody's's dividend payout ratio is presently 32.47%.

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.