Moody’s Co. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.85 (NYSE:MCO)

Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, May 3rd, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of 0.85 per share by the business services provider on Friday, June 7th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th.

Moody’s has raised its dividend payment by an average of 11.2% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years.

Moody’s Stock Up 1.1 %

MCO stock traded up $4.16 during trading on Friday, reaching $380.56. The stock had a trading volume of 784,857 shares, compared to its average volume of 736,418. Moody’s has a 1-year low of $296.45 and a 1-year high of $407.62. The company has a market capitalization of $69.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.59, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.01. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $384.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $372.82.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $3.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.06 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a return on equity of 55.23% and a net margin of 27.16%. Moody’s’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.99 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Moody’s will post 10.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Moody’s from $455.00 to $420.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $450.00 target price on shares of Moody’s in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Moody’s from $362.00 to $350.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Moody’s from $430.00 to $414.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Barclays upgraded Moody’s from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $375.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moody’s currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $398.50.

Moody’s Company 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.