Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Grows Stock Position in Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its holdings in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 25.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,773 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 972 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $2,274,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MCO. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Moody’s by 1.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 191,368 shares in the last quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 0.6% in the second quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 13,246,979 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,644,552,000 after buying an additional 83,872 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 1.8% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,888,788 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,943,418,000 after buying an additional 69,455 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 1.4% during 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 buying an additional 35,123 shares during the period. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew 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 buying an additional 215,551 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Stock Performance

MCO opened at $534.50 on Wednesday. Moody’s Corporation has a 1 year low of $378.71 and a 1 year high of $540.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $498.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $498.16. The stock has a market cap of $95.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.45.

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

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MCO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Seaport Res Ptn raised Moody’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded Moody’s from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $500.00 to $590.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus set a $574.00 target price on Moody’s and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, October 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $558.44.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other 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 value of $558,934.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 61,082 shares in the company, valued at $29,255,223.90. The trade was a 1.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders sold 1,739 shares of company stock valued at $841,445 over the last quarter. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Moody’s 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.