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

Key Points

• Analysts give Moody's an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from 19 firms (12 buys, 6 holds, 1 strong buy) with a 1-year average target of $544.29, above the recent share price (~$456.63).
• Moody's reported Q1 EPS of $4.33 (vs. $4.22 consensus) while revenue of $2.08B slightly missed estimates, and the company set FY2026 guidance of $16.40–$17.00 EPS (sell-side consensus ~16.69).
• Insiders sold 8,222 shares (~$3.79M) in the past three months — including CEO Robert Fauber — leaving company insiders with just 0.14% ownership.

Moody's Corporation (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) has been given an average rating of "Moderate Buy" by the nineteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twelve have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $544.2941.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MCO. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Moody's from $515.00 to $490.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a "market perform" rating and issued a $489.00 price objective on shares of Moody's in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Moody's from $560.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Moody's from $526.00 to $489.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Moody's from $574.00 to $540.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 19th.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,467 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $437.77, for a total transaction of $642,208.59. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 75,489 shares of the company's stock, valued at $33,046,819.53. This trade represents a 1.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 375 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.71, for a total value of $171,266.25. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 2,459 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,123,049.89. This trade represents a 13.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 8,222 shares of company stock valued at $3,786,732. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moody's

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Moody's by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,272,967 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $7,802,195,000 after purchasing an additional 102,682 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Moody's by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,965,480 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $2,019,551,000 after purchasing an additional 42,966 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Moody's by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,375,768 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,213,661,000 after purchasing an additional 111,725 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Moody's by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,370,601 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,211,023,000 after purchasing an additional 62,798 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Moody's during the 4th quarter worth about $1,097,101,000. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Moody's Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $456.63 on Friday. Moody's has a 12 month low of $402.28 and a 12 month high of $546.88. The company has a market cap of $79.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $448.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $476.05.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The business services provider reported $4.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.22 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. Moody's had a return on equity of 70.97% and a net margin of 31.69%.Moody's's revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.83 earnings per share. Moody's has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.400-17.000 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Moody's will post 16.69 EPS for the current year.

Moody's Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 5th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th will be paid a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. Moody's's dividend payout ratio is currently 29.53%.

Moody's Company Profile

Moody's Corporation is a global provider of credit ratings, research, data and analytics that support financial decision-making and transparency in capital markets. The company traces its origins to the early 20th century when financial analyst John Moody began publishing credit information; today Moody's is headquartered in New York and serves a broad set of market participants including investors, issuers, financial institutions, corporations, governments and regulators.

Moody's operates primarily through two complementary businesses.

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