Moody's Co. (NYSE:MCO – Get Rating) – Investment analysts at Oppenheimer dropped their Q1 2023 earnings per share estimates for shares of Moody's in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, January 31st. Oppenheimer analyst O. Lau now anticipates that the business services provider will post earnings per share of $2.13 for the quarter, down from their previous forecast of $2.22. Oppenheimer currently has a "Outperform" rating and a $342.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for Moody's' current full-year earnings is $9.33 per share. Oppenheimer also issued estimates for Moody's' Q2 2023 earnings at $2.30 EPS, Q4 2023 earnings at $2.45 EPS and FY2023 earnings at $9.38 EPS.

Moody's (NYSE:MCO – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 31st. The business services provider reported $1.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.27 billion. Moody's had a return on equity of 62.08% and a net margin of 25.13%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.33 EPS.

Moody's Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE MCO opened at $329.49 on Thursday. Moody's has a 52-week low of $230.16 and a 52-week high of $354.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.75, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a current ratio of 1.72. The stock has a market cap of $60.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.26. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $296.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $286.31.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MCO. BDO Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Moody's by 110.0% in the third quarter. BDO Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 126 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. bought a new position in shares of Moody's in the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. CX Institutional acquired a new position in shares of Moody's during the 2nd quarter worth about $46,000. Accurate Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Moody's in the 4th quarter valued at about $47,000. Finally, Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Moody's during the third quarter worth about $56,000. 90.84% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Moody's Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.93%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 23rd. This is a positive change from Moody's's previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. Moody's's dividend payout ratio is presently 37.63%.

Moody's Company Profile

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Moody's Corp. engages in the provision of credit ratings, research, tools and analysis to the global capital markets. It operates through the following segments: Moody's Investors Service (MIS) and Moody's Analytics (MA). The MIS segment is a credit rating agency, which publishes credit ratings on debt obligations and the entities, including various corporate and governmental obligations, structured finance securities and commercial paper programs.

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