Moody's Corporation (NYSE:MCO) Receives Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Moody's Corporation has received an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from 16 research firms, with an average target price of $540.71.
• The company recently announced earnings of $3.56 EPS for the last quarter, surpassing analysts' estimates of $3.39 EPS and achieving a revenue of $1.90 billion.
• Moody's declared a quarterly dividend of $0.94 per share, translating to an annualized yield of 0.8% and a dividend payout ratio of 31.95%.

Moody's Corporation (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the sixteen analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $540.7143.

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Mizuho lifted their price target on Moody's from $496.00 to $532.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Moody's from $445.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Moody's from $525.00 to $552.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Barclays boosted their target price on Moody's from $520.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Moody's from $595.00 to $597.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Stephen T. Tulenko sold 2,120 shares of the company'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 transaction, the insider directly owned 5,558 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,841,138.44. This represents a 27.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of the firm'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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 61,350 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,451,077.50. This trade represents a 0.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 9,423 shares of company stock valued at $4,812,135. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Moody's

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MCO. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Moody's by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,006,997 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $7,527,360,000 after acquiring an additional 191,368 shares during the last quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. increased its stake in Moody's by 0.6% during the second quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 13,246,979 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $6,644,552,000 after acquiring an additional 83,872 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Moody's by 1.8% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,888,788 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,943,418,000 after acquiring an additional 69,455 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp increased its stake in Moody's by 1.4% during the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 2,574,948 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,291,568,000 after acquiring an additional 35,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Moody's by 10.3% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,311,020 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,159,185,000 after acquiring an additional 215,551 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company's stock.

Moody's Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of MCO stock traded up $7.30 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $488.04. The company had a trading volume of 579,776 shares, compared to its average volume of 780,753. Moody's has a 12 month low of $378.71 and a 12 month high of $531.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $508.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $480.01. The company has a market cap of $87.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 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 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 company had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.28 earnings per share. The company'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. On average, research analysts expect that Moody's will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody's Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Moody's's dividend payout ratio is presently 31.95%.

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.