Moody’s’ (MCO) “Outperform” Rating Reiterated at Royal Bank Of Canada

Royal Bank Of Canada restated their outperform rating on shares of Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) in a report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $550.00 target price on the business services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on MCO. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $496.00 to $532.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $525.00 to $552.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $445.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $552.00 to $563.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Moody’s from $520.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moody’s presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $542.79.

Moody’s Price Performance

MCO stock opened at $484.17 on Thursday. Moody’s has a 12 month low of $378.71 and a 12 month high of $531.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $501.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $482.58. The stock has a market cap of $86.67 billion, a PE ratio of 41.14, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.41.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.39 by $0.17. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.18% and a return on equity of 60.73%. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Moody’s has set its FY 2025 guidance at 13.500-14.000 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Moody’s will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th were issued 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 payout ratio is currently 31.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 1,457 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $508.83, for a total value of $741,365.31. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 1,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $705,238.38. The trade was a 51.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $512.65, for a total transaction of $212,749.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 61,350 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,451,077.50. This represents a 0.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 9,423 shares of company stock worth $4,812,135. 0.14% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 1.3% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 0.6% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 1.8% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 1.4% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 10.3% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% 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.