Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the nineteen brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $545.0556.

MCO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 21st. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $565.00 target price on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $500.00 price target on shares of Moody’s in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $560.00 to $590.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 158 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $453.67, for a total transaction of $71,679.86. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 1,985 shares in the company, valued at $900,534.95. This represents a 7.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,467 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $466.39, for a total value of $684,194.13. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 75,189 shares in the company, valued at $35,067,397.71. This trade represents a 1.91% 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 a total of 3,250 shares of company stock valued at $1,495,098 in the last three months. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moody’s

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Birchwood Financial Partners Inc. bought a new position in Moody’s in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC acquired a new stake in Moody’s in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Ares Financial Consulting LLC acquired a new stake in Moody’s in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Wilkerson Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 87.1% during the first quarter. Wilkerson Advisory Group LLC now owns 58 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Moody’s Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $517.65 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $90.43 billion, a PE ratio of 37.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 1.16. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $459.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $465.37. Moody’s has a fifty-two week low of $402.28 and a fifty-two week high of $546.88.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The business services provider reported $4.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.22 by $0.11. Moody’s had a return on equity of 70.97% and a net margin of 31.69%.The company had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.83 EPS. Moody’s’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. Moody’s has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.400-17.000 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Moody’s will post 16.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th were paid a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.53%.

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.