Employees Provident Fund Board Makes New Investment in Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Employees Provident Fund Board acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 300,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $153,255,000. Employees Provident Fund Board owned approximately 0.17% of Moody’s at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MCO. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Moody’s in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Birchwood Financial Partners Inc. purchased a new position in Moody’s in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Caitlin John LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. Ares Financial Consulting LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new position in Moody’s in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MCO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $526.00 to $489.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $535.00 price target on shares of Moody’s in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and set a $565.00 price objective on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Moody’s from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $541.83.

Insider Activity

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,467 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $453.67, for a total value of $665,533.89. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 52,564 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,846,709.88. The trade was a 2.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 158 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.67, for a total value of $71,679.86. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 1,985 shares in the company, valued at $900,534.95. This represents a 7.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 4,717 shares of company stock valued at $2,137,306 in the last quarter. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Moody’s Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of MCO stock opened at $451.20 on Friday. Moody’s Corporation has a 12 month low of $402.28 and a 12 month high of $546.88. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $450.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $468.26. The stock has a market cap of $78.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The business services provider reported $4.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.22 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 70.97% and a net margin of 31.69%.Moody’s’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.83 earnings per share. Moody’s has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.400-17.000 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Moody’s Corporation will post 16.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 5th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.53%.

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.