Woodline Partners LP Raises Stock Holdings in Moody's Corporation $MCO

Key Points

• Woodline Partners LP increased its stake in Moody's Corporation by 39.7% during the first quarter, holding a total of 13,088 shares valued at approximately $6.1 million.
• Analysts remain optimistic about Moody's, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $540.57, following multiple upgrades from firms like Barclays and JPMorgan.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.94 per share, translating to an annualized dividend yield of 0.7%, with a payout ratio of 31.95%.

Woodline Partners LP increased its stake in shares of Moody's Corporation (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) by 39.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 13,088 shares of the business services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,721 shares during the quarter. Woodline Partners LP's holdings in Moody's were worth $6,095,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Moody's by 5.5% during the 1st quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,048 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $4,214,000 after purchasing an additional 471 shares during the last quarter. Horizon Financial Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody's by 77,500.0% during the 1st quarter. Horizon Financial Services LLC now owns 2,328 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,084,000 after purchasing an additional 2,325 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody's by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 527,518 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $244,817,000 after purchasing an additional 56,273 shares during the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody's by 289.8% during the 1st quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,282 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,528,000 after purchasing an additional 2,440 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Moody's by 7.9% during the 1st quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 69,849 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $32,528,000 after purchasing an additional 5,095 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MCO. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Moody's from $509.00 to $534.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Mizuho upped their target price on Moody's from $496.00 to $532.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. UBS Group upped their target price on Moody's from $445.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Moody's in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Moody's from $525.00 to $552.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $540.57.

Moody's Stock Performance

Shares of MCO stock traded down $3.61 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $508.70. The stock had a trading volume of 585,239 shares, compared to its average volume of 569,074. The business's fifty day moving average is $508.81 and its 200-day moving average is $479.66. 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 firm has a market cap of $91.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.22, a PEG ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 1.42. Moody's Corporation has a 1-year low of $378.71 and a 1-year high of $531.93.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 company's revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.28 earnings per share. 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 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody's Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. 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 31.95%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Michael L. West sold 3,704 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $511.10, for a total transaction of $1,893,114.40. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 8,209 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,195,619.90. This trade represents a 31.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,457 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $508.83, for a total value of $741,365.31. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 1,386 shares in the company, valued at $705,238.38. This represents a 51.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,008 shares of company stock valued at $4,599,385 over the last 90 days. Company 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.