Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) Upgraded to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Friday.

MCO has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus set a $574.00 price objective on shares of Moody’s and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Moody’s from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $500.00 to $590.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Moody’s from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Finally, Seaport Research Partners upgraded Moody’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $560.94.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of Moody’s stock opened at $523.58 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $505.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $499.82. Moody’s has a 52 week low of $378.71 and a 52 week high of $546.88. The company has a market capitalization of $93.41 billion, a PE ratio of 42.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.45.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.92 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 63.58% and a net margin of 29.92%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.21 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Moody’s will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,167 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 61,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,255,223.90. This trade represents a 1.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 1,739 shares of company stock worth $841,445 in the last ninety days. 0.14% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moody’s

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rexford Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of Moody’s during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. purchased a new position in Moody’s in the second quarter worth $25,000. Caitlin John LLC acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s during the third quarter worth $27,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Moody’s

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.