Moody's Corporation (NYSE:MCO) Given Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Moody's Corporation has received an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from analysts, with a target price of $538.80 based on recent reports from 17 analysts.
• Insider transactions include CFO Noemie Clemence Heuland selling 897 shares at $508.24 each, and insider Michael L. West selling 3,704 shares at $511.10 each, indicating a significant decrease in their ownership stakes.
• Moody's reported an EPS of $3.56 for the latest quarter, surpassing expectations, along with a quarterly dividend announcement of $0.94 per share to be paid in September.

Moody's Corporation (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the seventeen ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and ten have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $538.80.

MCO has been the topic of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Moody's from $552.00 to $563.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. UBS Group increased their price objective 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. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Moody's from $509.00 to $534.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Moody's from $496.00 to $532.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Moody's from $495.00 to $565.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st.

Moody's Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MCO traded up $0.93 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $510.36. The stock had a trading volume of 115,777 shares, compared to its average volume of 778,039. Moody's has a one year low of $378.71 and a one year high of $531.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. The stock has a market cap of $91.35 billion, a PE ratio of 43.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.40. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $505.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $480.39.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Moody's had a return on equity of 60.73% and a net margin of 29.18%.The business had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.28 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. Moody's has set its FY 2025 guidance at 13.500-14.000 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Moody's will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody's Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Moody's

In other Moody's news, insider Michael L. West sold 3,704 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 8,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,195,619.90. The trade was a 31.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 2,120 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $511.18, for a total value of $1,083,701.60. Following the transaction, the insider owned 5,558 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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 a total of 9,008 shares of company stock worth $4,599,385 in the last ninety days. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its holdings in shares of Moody's by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 73,335 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $34,715,000 after buying an additional 10,350 shares during the period. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moody's by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,241 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $587,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Nebula Research & Development LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moody's by 26.9% in the fourth quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC now owns 595 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $282,000 after buying an additional 126 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Moody's by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,953 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,398,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the period. Finally, Boothbay Fund Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moody's by 1,098.8% in the fourth quarter. Boothbay Fund Management LLC now owns 6,977 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $3,303,000 after buying an additional 6,395 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% 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.