Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) Lowered to “Equal Weight” at Barclays

Posted by on Jun 3rd, 2022

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO – Get Rating) was downgraded by Barclays from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report released on Friday, The Fly reports.

MCO has been the subject of several other research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on Moody’s from $372.00 to $324.00 in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com started coverage on Moody’s in a report on Thursday, March 31st. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Moody’s from $400.00 to $385.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 4th. Raymond James decreased their target price on Moody’s from $439.00 to $417.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 7th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on Moody’s from $408.00 to $387.00 in a report on Friday, February 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $372.42.

Shares of MCO stock opened at $293.57 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.82, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.36. Moody’s has a fifty-two week low of $269.47 and a fifty-two week high of $407.94. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $314.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $342.01. The company has a market capitalization of $54.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.80, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.19.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $2.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.90 by ($0.01). Moody’s had a net margin of 32.18% and a return on equity of 79.22%. The company had revenue of $1.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.06 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Moody’s will post 11.1 earnings per share for the current year.

In related news, Director Raymond W. Mcdaniel sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.41, for a total value of $2,994,100.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 57,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,216,973.23. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.38% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 6.9% in the second quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,014,775 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $730,094,000 after acquiring an additional 130,904 shares during the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 3.2% in the third quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 1,132 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $401,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the third quarter worth $37,926,000. Trexquant Investment LP purchased a new stake in shares of Moody’s in the third quarter worth $417,000. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Moody’s by 3.5% in the third quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 1,773 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $630,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. 91.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Moody’s (Get Rating)

Moody's Corporation operates as an integrated risk assessment firm worldwide. It operates in two segments, Moody's Investors Service and Moody's Analytics. The Moody's Investors Service segment publishes credit ratings and provides assessment services on various debt obligations, programs and facilities, and entities that issue such obligations, such as various corporate, financial institution, and governmental obligations, as well as and structured finance securities.

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