Moody's (NYSE:MCO – Get Rating) had its target price hoisted by Oppenheimer from $309.00 to $342.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the business services provider's stock. Oppenheimer also issued estimates for Moody's' Q1 2023 earnings at $2.13 EPS, Q2 2023 earnings at $2.30 EPS, Q4 2023 earnings at $2.45 EPS and FY2023 earnings at $9.38 EPS.
Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Argus decreased their price target on Moody's from $340.00 to $300.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 2nd. Barclays lifted their price target on Moody's from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com started coverage on Moody's in a report on Wednesday, October 12th. They set a hold rating for the company. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Moody's from $289.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Moody's from $294.00 to $293.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 4th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $307.67.
Get Moody's alerts:Moody's Trading Down 1.6 %
NYSE:MCO opened at $324.36 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $59.42 billion, a PE ratio of 43.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.26. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $297.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $286.92. Moody's has a 12-month low of $230.16 and a 12-month high of $354.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.75.
Moody's (NYSE:MCO – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 31st. The business services provider reported $1.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.42 by $0.18. The firm 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%. Moody's's revenue was down 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Moody's will post 9.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.Moody's Increases Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 24th will be issued a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 23rd. This is a positive change from Moody's's previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. Moody's's payout ratio is currently 37.63%.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moody's
A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Moody's by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,701,509 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $3,330,974,000 after purchasing an additional 35,737 shares in the last quarter. Akre Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Moody's by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Akre Capital Management LLC now owns 5,703,505 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,551,182,000 after acquiring an additional 43,793 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Moody's by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,096,678 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,386,144,000 after acquiring an additional 50,289 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of Moody's by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,148,302 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $765,385,000 after acquiring an additional 249,312 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Moody's by 67.9% during the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,582,885 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $702,467,000 after acquiring an additional 1,044,597 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.84% of the company's stock.
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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