Point72 Europe London LLP Has $3.60 Million Position in Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Point72 Europe London LLP lessened its stake in shares of Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO - Free Report) by 41.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,600 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 5,400 shares during the quarter. Point72 Europe London LLP's holdings in Moody's were worth $3,598,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Moody's by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,696,081 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $6,956,684,000 after acquiring an additional 63,820 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Moody's by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,680,799 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,738,645,000 after purchasing an additional 68,627 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Moody's during the 4th quarter worth $988,750,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Moody's by 20.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,776,729 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $841,050,000 after buying an additional 302,453 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Moody's by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,537,331 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $727,726,000 after acquiring an additional 53,504 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MCO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Moody's in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $530.00 price objective for the company. Barclays cut their target price on Moody's from $570.00 to $520.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Moody's from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Moody's from $533.00 to $468.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Moody's from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Moody's presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $515.87.

Moody's Trading Down 1.1%

NYSE MCO opened at $479.13 on Thursday. Moody's Co. has a twelve month low of $378.71 and a twelve month high of $531.93. The business's fifty day moving average is $447.41 and its 200 day moving average is $471.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The company has a market cap of $86.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.40.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.58 by $0.25. Moody's had a return on equity of 58.94% and a net margin of 29.03%. The company had revenue of $1.92 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Moody's Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody's Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. Moody's's payout ratio is 32.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $437.80, for a total transaction of $181,687.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 62,690 shares in the company, valued at $27,445,682. This trade represents a 0.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 1,111 shares of company stock valued at $520,603 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.14% of the company's stock.

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.

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