Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Makes New $6.58 Million Investment in Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 13,818 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,584,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Rexford Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in Moody’s in the second quarter valued at $25,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Heartwood Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Moody’s during the third quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, ORG Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 50.0% during the second quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 66 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MCO has been the topic of several research reports. Mizuho upped their price objective on Moody’s from $539.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Moody’s from $534.00 to $507.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $528.00 price objective on Moody’s and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $620.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $540.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $560.94.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In related news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,167 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.95, for a total value of $558,934.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 61,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,255,223.90. This represents a 1.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 1,739 shares of company stock worth $841,445 in the last quarter. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $529.83 on Friday. Moody’s Corporation has a 12-month low of $378.71 and a 12-month high of $546.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70. The company has a market cap of $94.52 billion, a PE ratio of 42.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.45. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $504.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $499.68.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.22. Moody’s had a return on equity of 63.58% and a net margin of 29.92%.The company had revenue of $2.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.21 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Moody’s Corporation will post 13.95 EPS for the current year.

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.