US Bancorp DE Increases Stock Holdings in Moody's Corporation $MCO

US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in Moody's Corporation (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) by 2.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 26,073 shares of the business services provider's stock after buying an additional 596 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE's holdings in Moody's were worth $13,078,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MCO. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Moody's during the first quarter worth about $328,595,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Moody's by 21.0% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,530,582 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $712,777,000 after acquiring an additional 265,389 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Moody's by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,311,020 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,159,185,000 after acquiring an additional 215,551 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Moody's by 70.0% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 447,444 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $208,370,000 after acquiring an additional 184,297 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Moody's by 29.9% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 634,762 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $295,570,000 after acquiring an additional 146,141 shares in the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody's

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of Moody's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $512.65, for a total value of $212,749.75. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 61,350 shares in the company, valued at $31,451,077.50. The trade was a 0.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Michael L. West sold 3,704 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $511.10, for a total transaction of $1,893,114.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 8,209 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,195,619.90. This trade represents a 31.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 9,423 shares of company stock valued at $4,812,135. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company's stock.

Moody's Stock Performance

Moody's stock opened at $484.17 on Friday. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $501.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $482.58. Moody's Corporation has a 12-month low of $378.71 and a 12-month high of $531.93. The company has a market capitalization of $86.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.39 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Moody's had a return on equity of 60.73% and a net margin of 29.18%.The business's revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.28 EPS. Moody's has set its FY 2025 guidance at 13.500-14.000 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Moody's's payout ratio is 31.95%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MCO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Moody's from $495.00 to $565.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Moody's from $552.00 to $563.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Moody's from $445.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Moody's from $525.00 to $552.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Moody's in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Moody's currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $542.79.

About Moody's

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.

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