Dev Kantesaria’s Stock Portfolio: Top 5 Stocks

3. Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO)

Valley Forge Capital Management’s Stake Value: $418.6 million
Percentage of Valley Forge Capital Management’s 13F Portfolio: 16.26%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 44

Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) is a New York-based credit rating and risk management company that assigns evaluates bonds and stocks based on the investment risk they possess.

As of Q2 2021, Valley Forge Capital Management holds over 1.15 million shares in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO). These shares amount to more than $418.6 million and account for 16.26% of the fund’s total investment portfolio.

On September 7, Oppenheimer analyst Owen Lau raised the price target on Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) to $418 from $406, and maintained an Outperform rating on the shares of the company.

By the end of the second quarter of 2021, 44 hedge funds out of the 873 tracked by Insider Monkey held stakes in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) worth roughly $16 billion. This is compared to 55 hedge funds in the previous quarter with a total stake value of approximately $13.7 billion.

According to our database, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is the leading shareholder in the company, with over 24.6 million shares, worth approximately $8.93 billion.

In the Q2 2021 investor letter of Qualivian Investment Partners, the fund mentioned Moody’s Corporation (NYSE: MCO). Here is what the fund said:

“Moody’s: Revenue, operating profit margins, and EPS all exceeded expectations, and annual guidance for these items (and for free cash flow) was raised. In MIS (Moody’s Investors Service) which houses the traditional ratings business, the outlook for debt issuance was raised for the remainder of the year, while MA (Moody’s Analytics) also came in ahead of expectations. The company leveraged strong revenue growth with strong operating profit margin improvement of 200 bps, with EPS coming in $0.22 ahead of consensus estimates. Management alluded to having interesting opportunities in their M&A pipeline, which we will have to assess when the time comes, but Moody’s management team has been very effective at allocating capital in the past toward value-creating bolt-on acquisitions, especially in their Moody’s Analytics business, a key growth driver for the company.”