Empirical Asset Management LLC Purchases 222 Shares of Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Empirical Asset Management LLC increased its position in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 13.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,866 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 222 shares during the quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $936,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of MCO. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Moody’s during the first quarter worth approximately $328,595,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 21.0% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,530,582 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $712,777,000 after buying an additional 265,389 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 10.3% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,311,020 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,159,185,000 after buying an additional 215,551 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 70.0% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 447,444 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $208,370,000 after buying an additional 184,297 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 29.9% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 634,762 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $295,570,000 after buying an additional 146,141 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 415 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $481.09, for a total value of $199,652.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 61,082 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,385,939.38. This trade represents a 0.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Michael L. West sold 3,704 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $511.10, for a total value of $1,893,114.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 8,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,195,619.90. This trade represents a 31.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,423 shares of company stock valued at $4,802,876 in the last 90 days. 0.14% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MCO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group upped their target price on Moody’s from $445.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Moody’s from $525.00 to $552.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Moody’s from $595.00 to $597.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 19th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Moody’s from $534.00 to $521.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $528.00 target price on Moody’s and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Moody’s presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $542.87.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Moody’s stock opened at $468.57 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $497.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $482.73. Moody’s Corporation has a 52-week low of $378.71 and a 52-week high of $531.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $83.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.41.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $3.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.39 by $0.17. Moody’s had a return on equity of 60.73% and a net margin of 29.18%.The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.28 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Moody’s has set its FY 2025 guidance at 13.500-14.000 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.95%.

Moody’s Company Profile

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.