Moodys Corporation (MCO)
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Moody's assigns the grades that half the bond market runs on. In fiscal 2025 that produced $7.718 billion in revenue and $2.459 billion in profit; in the second quarter of 2026 revenue climbed 15 percent, driven by bonds that finance data centers for artificial intelligence. At the same time shareholders' equity shrank by a quarter in six months, because $2.165 billion went into the company's own shares. We read the annual report and the quarterly report filed on July 23, 2026 — and found a company that writes its own dependence on issuance volume straight into its risk factors. No recommendation — just the question of what a grade is worth when the graded party pays for it.
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Basics
Performance
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
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Quality & Screener
AI Rating
Sells AIMoody’s verkauft eigene Produkte mit generativer und agentischer KI als Teil der Analytics-Sparte und führt sie im Geschäftsbericht 2025 ausdrücklich in der Wachstumsstrategie; das Unternehmen bezeichnet sich dort selbst als frühen Anwender.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
„New products, services, proprietary data and technology capabilities, including Gen AI and Agentic AI offerings, to help customers attain competitive advantage and improve internal productivity"
Neue Produkte, Dienstleistungen, eigene Daten und Technologiefähigkeiten, einschließlich Angeboten mit generativer und agentischer KI, die Kunden helfen sollen, Wettbewerbsvorteile zu erzielen und die interne Produktivität zu steigern
„As an early adopter of Gen AI and agentic AI, which Moody's believes will help our customers make better decisions by unlocking deeper, more integrated perspectives on risk, we believe Moody's has positioned itself to benefit from the capabilities of this technology and harness the proprietary insights resulting from being embedded in customer workflows."
Als früher Anwender generativer und agentischer KI — von der Moody’s annimmt, dass sie Kunden zu besseren Entscheidungen verhilft, indem sie tiefere, stärker integrierte Sichtweisen auf Risiken erschließt — sieht sich Moody’s so aufgestellt, dass es von den Fähigkeiten dieser Technologie profitiert und die eigenen Erkenntnisse aus der Einbettung in die Arbeitsabläufe der Kunden nutzt.
„A provider of AI-powered property risk intelligence; the Company acquired CAPE Analytics in January 2025"
Ein Anbieter KI-gestützter Risikoinformationen zu Immobilien; das Unternehmen erwarb CAPE Analytics im Januar 2025
Filings Reviewed: 10-Q 2026-07-23 · 8-K 2026-07-22 · 10-Q 2026-04-23 · 10-K 2026-02-18 · 10-Q 2025-10-23 · 10-K 2024-02-14
Rated on July 26, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Highlighted are things our editorial team noticed: green = stands out as strong, red = deserves a closer look. No single metric is a verdict on its own — always read it in context.
Quarterly Figures
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q4 | 2.16 | 16.70 | 1,672 | 13.00 | 23.60 | 674 | 600 |
| 2025: Q1 | 3.46 | 9.90 | 1,924 | 7.70 | 32.50 | 757 | 672 |
| 2025: Q2 | 3.20 | 6.20 | 1,898 | 4.50 | 30.50 | 543 | 468 |
| 2025: Q3 | 3.58 | 22.50 | 2,007 | 10.70 | 32.20 | 743 | 903 |
| 2025: Q4 | 3.41 | 57.90 | 1,889 | 13.00 | 32.30 | 858 | 777 |
| 2026: Q1 | 3.73 | 7.80 | 2,079 | 8.10 | 31.80 | 939 | 844 |
| 2026: Q2 | 5.03 | 57.20 | 2,185 | 15.10 | 40.20 | 779 | 688 |
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
Two rating agencies share most of the global market, and Moody's is one of them. That shows up in numbers few industries ever see: a 43.4 percent operating margin in fiscal 2025 ($3.351 billion on $7.718 billion of revenue), and a 63.6 percent adjusted segment margin in ratings alone. In the second quarter of 2026 revenue rose 15 percent to $2.185 billion and the operating margin went from 43.1 to 47.9 percent.
The 2025 annual report itself states that a majority of rating-based revenue is transaction-based. The year 2022 showed what that means: revenue fell from $6.218 billion to $5.468 billion (down 12.1 percent), operating income from $2.844 billion to $1.883 billion (down 33.8 percent) and net income from $2.214 billion to $1.374 billion. The current surge in the second quarter of 2026 comes in visible part from bonds financing AI data centers — demand nobody can guarantee for a decade.
As of June 30, 2026, $3.025 billion of equity stands against $14.675 billion of total assets, $6.946 billion of debt and $6.318 billion of goodwill. That is policy, not accident: $2.165 billion went into treasury shares in six months, three times the year-earlier figure, and cash fell from $2.384 billion to $1.467 billion. Interest coverage of 18.3 and an Altman Z of 7.17 (data as of 2026-07-26) show this is not a solvency question — but the cushion for a bad year is thinner than it used to be.
Of the $878 million in net income for the second quarter of 2026, $179 million came from the sale of MA Regulatory Solutions. Reported diluted earnings per share rose 57 percent, the adjusted figure 31 percent — both are strong, but only the second one describes the operating business. Up to $119 million of contingent consideration from the same sale is still outstanding for the second half of 2026, per the quarterly report.
Moody's Analytics is meant to be the calm counterweight to the issuance cycle, but it grows more slowly than ratings: external revenue of $925 million in the second quarter of 2026 was up 4 percent, while ratings gained 25 percent. On an organic constant currency basis, recurring revenue grew 9 percent, and annualized recurring revenue stood at $3.498 billion as of December 31, 2025 (up 8 percent). The gap is explained by divested units — the segment is being reshaped right now.
Roughly $81.7 billion of market capitalization (173.2 million shares, closing price of $471.50 on July 24, 2026) equals about 30 times trailing earnings per share and about 10 times revenue — a price that assumes quality and forgives nothing. Twenty-three analyst estimates average a target price of roughly $556 (12 strong buy, 4 buy, 7 hold, no sell; data as of 2026-07-26). A book-value comparison does not help here: it would only measure how many shares have already been repurchased.
Moody's is an exceptionally profitable company in a market shared by two houses: $7.718 billion of revenue and a 43.4 percent operating margin in fiscal 2025, $2.901 billion of operating cash flow, and a 15 percent revenue gain in the second quarter of 2026. That very strength carries a price the ticker does not show: earnings hang on issuance volume — the annual report says so itself — the current surge comes in part from bonds financing AI data centers, and book equity shrank by a quarter in six months as $2.165 billion went into the company's own shares. Buying here means buying a very good business at a price that assumes a very good business. Not investment advice.
- Hook: in-house stock scanner "Turnaround-Kandidaten", rank 22 of 62 U.S. hits, turnaround check 6 of 8, as of July 25, 2026. The lists are recalculated daily; ranking and score are a snapshot.
- Disclosed data finding: the mandatory pillar "at least 50 percent below the all-time high" carries a distance of 84.4 percent in our data set. The price history of the same stock shows a highest traded price of $546.88 on January 15, 2026 against $471.50 on July 24, 2026 — roughly 14 percent below. The entry in the list therefore rests on a value the price history does not confirm.
- Data as of: annual report 10-K for 2025 filed 2026-02-18, annual report 10-K for 2023 filed 2024-02-14 (supplies 2021 and 2022), quarterly report 10-Q as of 2026-06-30 filed 2026-07-23, Form 8-K of 2026-07-22; metrics and price history July 24 to 26, 2026.
- Possible confusion: the registrant behind CIK 0001059556 was named "Dun & Bradstreet Corp /DE/" until February 2000. Moody's Corporation is the renamed shell left after the data business was spun off; the former names still appear in SEC company records.
- Do not confuse: the credit ratings assigned by Moody's Investors Service are opinions about borrowers, not statements about Moody's stock. And the traffic light in this analysis judges the company, not the entry point.
About the Company
Moody's Corporation ist mit ihren Tochtergesellschaften ein integriertes Risikobewertungsunternehmen in den USA, dem übrigen Amerika, Europa, dem Nahen Osten, Afrika und dem asiatisch-pazifischen Raum. Es ist in zwei Segmenten tätig: Moody's Analytics (MA) und Moody's Investors Services (MIS).
| Employees | 16,000 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | New York, NY |
| Website | moodys.com |
| IPO Date | 3. Oct 2000 |
| Next Earnings | 22. Jul 2026 |
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| Robert Scott Fauber | President, CEO & Director | 1970 |
| Noemie Clemence Heuland CPA | Senior VP & CFO | 1978 |
| Richard Steele | Senior VP & General Counsel | 1970 |
| Michael L. West | President of Moody's Investors Service Inc. & CEO of Moody's Ratings | 1969 |
| Jason Phillips | Chief Accounting Officer & Corporate Controller | 1977 |
| Tameka Brown Alsop P.M.P. | Senior VP & Chief Administrative Officer | – |
| Shivani Kak | Head of Investor Relations | – |
| Andrew Weinberg | Chief Compliance Officer | – |
| Michael Adler | Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications | – |
| Maral Kazanjian | Senior VP & Chief People Officer | 1974 |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
Data as of: July 24, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.