Exchange Traded Concepts LLC Purchases 1,705 Shares of Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its position in shares of Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 53.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,879 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,705 shares during the quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $2,325,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Moody’s by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,006,997 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,527,360,000 after acquiring an additional 191,368 shares in the last quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. boosted its stake in 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 valued at $6,644,552,000 after purchasing an additional 83,872 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 1.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 69,455 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp raised its stake in shares of Moody’s by 1.4% in the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 2,574,948 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,291,568,000 after purchasing an additional 35,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 10.3% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,311,020 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,159,185,000 after purchasing an additional 215,551 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on MCO shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Moody’s from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $524.00 to $570.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Moody’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Moody’s from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $531.00 to $535.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Moody’s has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $543.40.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,167 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.95, for a total transaction of $558,934.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 61,082 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,255,223.90. The trade was a 1.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,154 shares of company stock worth $1,041,098. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Moody’s Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of MCO stock opened at $516.45 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70. Moody’s Corporation has a 12 month low of $378.71 and a 12 month high of $531.93. The stock has a market cap of $92.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $487.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $493.93.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $2.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.92 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.92% and a return on equity of 63.58%. The company’s revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.21 EPS. Moody’s has set its FY 2025 guidance at 14.500-14.750 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 21st were paid a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 21st. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.23%.

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.