Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO) Shares Purchased by High Ground Investment Management LLP

High Ground Investment Management LLP raised its position in shares of Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) by 10.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,130 shares of the business services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 4,002 shares during the quarter. Moody's accounts for 7.9% of High Ground Investment Management LLP's investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. High Ground Investment Management LLP's holdings in Moody's were worth $16,064,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MCO. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Moody's by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,974,432 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $4,418,296,000 after purchasing an additional 88,667 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in Moody's by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,301,253 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,359,927,000 after buying an additional 205,800 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Moody's during the 4th quarter valued at $720,502,000. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Moody's by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,773,991 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $692,850,000 after acquiring an additional 229,831 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rothschild & Co Wealth Management UK Ltd increased its stake in shares of Moody's by 1.3% in the third quarter. Rothschild & Co Wealth Management UK Ltd now owns 1,693,940 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $535,573,000 after acquiring an additional 21,145 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MCO has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays raised shares of Moody's from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $375.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Moody's in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Moody's from $455.00 to $420.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group upped their price target on Moody's from $355.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Moody's from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $397.75.

Moody's Price Performance

NYSE MCO traded up $3.51 during trading on Thursday, reaching $376.40. 1,343,388 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 735,752. Moody's Co. has a 1-year low of $296.45 and a 1-year high of $407.62. The company has a market cap of $68.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.26. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $384.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $372.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a current ratio of 1.74.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $3.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.94 by $0.43. Moody's had a return on equity of 55.23% and a net margin of 27.16%. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 21.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Moody's Co. will post 10.77 EPS for the current year.

Moody's Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This is a positive change from Moody's's previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.90%. Moody's's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.95%.

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.

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