Ninety One UK Ltd Has $748.32 Million Stock Holdings in Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Ninety One UK Ltd reduced its position in shares of Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,916,009 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 3,009 shares during the quarter. Moody's comprises 2.2% of Ninety One UK Ltd's portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Ninety One UK Ltd owned about 1.05% of Moody's worth $748,316,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Moody's during the fourth quarter worth approximately $425,827,000. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Moody's by 277.8% in the 3rd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,544,160 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $488,217,000 after acquiring an additional 1,135,463 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Moody's by 29.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,994,497 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,112,947,000 after purchasing an additional 914,530 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Moody's during the third quarter valued at $153,532,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Moody's by 39.7% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,510,986 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $477,728,000 after purchasing an additional 429,473 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on MCO. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Moody's from $355.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Barclays upgraded shares of Moody's from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $375.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Moody's from $430.00 to $414.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Moody's from $455.00 to $420.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Moody's from $420.00 to $410.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $397.75.

Moody's Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:MCO traded down $0.81 on Thursday, reaching $374.60. The company had a trading volume of 786,686 shares, compared to its average volume of 720,659. The stock has a market capitalization of $68.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.27. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $385.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $368.69. Moody's Co. has a twelve month low of $296.45 and a twelve month high of $407.62. The company has a quick ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.19 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.33 by ($0.14). Moody's had a net margin of 27.16% and a return on equity of 55.23%. The firm had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.60 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 14.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Moody's Co. will post 10.68 EPS for the current year.

Moody's Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were given a dividend of $0.85 per share. This is a positive change from Moody's's previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.91%. Moody's's payout ratio is currently 38.95%.

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.