Citigroup Inc. Cuts Holdings in Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Citigroup Inc. decreased its holdings in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 52.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 118,232 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 129,458 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. owned about 0.07% of Moody’s worth $56,335,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Moody’s in the 2nd quarter worth $987,524,000. Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new position in Moody’s in the second quarter worth about $135,968,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 buying an additional 191,368 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 223.8% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 102,126 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $51,225,000 after buying an additional 184,598 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 91.0% in the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 235,237 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $117,987,000 after buying an additional 112,105 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MCO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Thursday. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $610.00 price target on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Thursday. Barclays lowered their price objective on Moody’s from $580.00 to $550.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on Moody’s from $539.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $551.88.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of MCO stock opened at $436.67 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $496.06 and a 200 day moving average of $493.10. Moody’s Corporation has a 1 year low of $378.71 and a 1 year high of $546.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $77.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.44.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The business services provider reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.39 by $0.25. Moody’s had a return on equity of 66.01% and a net margin of 31.86%.The business had revenue of $1.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.62 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Moody’s has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.400-17.000 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 2nd will be paid a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 2nd. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.94. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 575 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $498.90, for a total transaction of $286,867.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 61,082 shares in the company, valued at $30,473,809.80. The trade was a 0.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.