XXEC Inc. Trims Position in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

XXEC Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 31.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 15,213 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 7,010 shares during the quarter. Moody’s accounts for about 4.5% of XXEC Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. XXEC Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $5,979,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 3rd quarter valued at $35,000. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 87.7% in the 3rd quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 122 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Milestone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 3rd quarter valued at $52,000. Finally, Advantage Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 4th quarter valued at $52,000. 92.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on MCO. Barclays raised shares of Moody’s from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $375.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $362.00 to $350.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $355.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $420.00 to $410.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $411.00 to $424.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $397.75.

Moody’s Stock Down 1.1 %

MCO traded down $4.28 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $370.34. 1,116,098 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 725,876. The company has a quick ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01. The business’s 50 day moving average is $384.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $372.80. Moody’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $296.45 and a fifty-two week high of $407.62. The stock has a market cap of $67.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.42, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.27.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.33 by ($0.14). Moody’s had a return on equity of 55.23% and a net margin of 27.16%. The firm had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.60 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 14.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 10.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a $0.85 dividend. This is a positive change from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.92%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.95%.

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.