Rothschild & Co Wealth Management UK Ltd Has $512.70 Million Stock Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Rothschild & Co Wealth Management UK Ltd cut its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 20.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,083,090 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 277,620 shares during the period. Moody’s accounts for 9.0% of Rothschild & Co Wealth Management UK Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Rothschild & Co Wealth Management UK Ltd owned approximately 0.60% of Moody’s worth $512,702,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in Moody’s by 11.2% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 62,913 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $29,858,000 after purchasing an additional 6,340 shares during the period. Fiduciary Alliance LLC grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 32.5% in the fourth quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 14,316 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,777,000 after acquiring an additional 3,510 shares during the last quarter. Burney Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the fourth quarter worth $6,775,000. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 567.2% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 80,781 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $38,338,000 after acquiring an additional 68,674 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 22.6% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,333,263 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,107,344,000 after acquiring an additional 430,878 shares during the last quarter. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moody’s

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of Moody’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $474.86, for a total value of $133,435.66. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,390,984.84. This trade represents a 0.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Caroline Sullivan sold 1,681 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.40, for a total value of $777,294.40. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,415 shares in the company, valued at approximately $654,296. This trade represents a 54.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,524 shares of company stock valued at $1,178,413 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Moody’s Price Performance

Shares of MCO stock opened at $484.60 on Thursday. Moody’s Co. has a 52-week low of $360.05 and a 52-week high of $503.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 1.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $87.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.30. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $480.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $472.10.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.97% and a net margin of 29.05%. Moody’s’s revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.43 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 12.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MCO. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Moody’s from $462.00 to $481.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Moody’s from $490.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup assumed coverage on Moody’s in a research report on Friday, December 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $565.00 target price for the company. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Moody’s from $468.00 to $481.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Moody’s presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $507.36.

Moody’s 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.