Sarasin & Partners LLP Decreases Holdings in Moody’s Corporation $MCO

Sarasin & Partners LLP trimmed its holdings in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) by 49.3% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 145,786 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 141,999 shares during the period. Sarasin & Partners LLP’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $66,029,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. bought a new stake in Moody’s in the second quarter worth $25,000. Birchwood Financial Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of Moody’s during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Ares Financial Consulting LLC purchased a new position in shares of Moody’s in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Wilkerson Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 87.1% in the 1st quarter. Wilkerson Advisory Group LLC now owns 58 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MCO has been the subject of several analyst reports. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $565.00 target price on shares of Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $535.00 price objective on shares of Moody’s in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Moody’s from $530.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Moody’s in a report on Friday, July 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $610.00 target price on the stock. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $505.00 target price on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $553.61.

Moody’s Stock Performance

Moody’s stock opened at $472.54 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01. The firm has a market cap of $81.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.33. Moody’s Corporation has a 1-year low of $402.28 and a 1-year high of $546.88. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $471.39 and a 200-day moving average of $461.04.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The business services provider reported $4.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.26 by $0.42. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.09 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 80.35% and a net margin of 34.25%.Moody’s’s revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.56 EPS. Moody’s has set its FY 2026 guidance at 16.500-17.000 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Moody’s Corporation will post 16.89 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 14th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is 26.13%.

Insider Activity at Moody’s

In related news, SVP Richard G. Steele sold 158 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, 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. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 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 on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $484.30, for a total value of $710,468.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 51,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,166,165.20. The trade was a 2.75% decrease in their position. 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 3,092 shares of company stock worth $1,447,682 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

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.