Finance · Profile from Finance Research Companion
Moody's Corporation
One of the two dominant US credit rating agencies and, increasingly, a data and analytics company. Moody's Corporation (NYSE: MCO), headquartered at 7 World Trade Center in New York, runs two businesses: Moody's Ratings (formerly Moody's Investors Service, MIS), which grades the creditworthiness of governments, companies and structured securities and is paid mainly by the issuers it rates; and Moody's Analytics (MA), which sells credit data, company databases, risk models, insurance catastrophe models and software on subscription. Founded on John Moody's 1909 railroad bond ratings, owned by Dun & Bradstreet from 1962 and spun off in 2000, Moody's was one of the "key enablers" of the 2008 crisis in the words of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, because it gave AAA ratings to mortgage securities that later collapsed. It paid $864m to the Justice Department and 21 states and the District of Columbia in January 2017 to settle claims over those ratings, then spent the following decade buying data companies (Bureau van Dijk, RMS and others). In 2025 it reported record revenue of ~$7.7bn (MIS ~$4.1bn, MA ~$3.6bn), net income of ~$2.46bn and an adjusted operating margin of ~51%. In May 2025 it removed the United States' last remaining AAA rating.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1900 (John Moody & Company publishes Moody's Manual); first bond ratings 1909; Moody's Investors Service incorporated 1914 (company history, reported)
- Founder
- John Moody (1868–1958), a Wall Street analyst and publisher
- Headquarters
- 7 World Trade Center, New York
- Ownership / structure
- Listed on the NYSE (MCO) since the September 30, 2000 separation from Dun & Bradstreet. Berkshire Hathaway has been the largest shareholder since the spin-off, holding ~24.7m shares, roughly 13–14% (Berkshire 13F filings, reported, verify current stake)
- Leadership
- Rob Fauber, President and CEO since January 2021 (previously COO, and earlier head of Moody's Analytics businesses); Ray McDaniel was CEO 2005–2020 (company)
- Segment
- Data and ratings: credit ratings (an NRSRO registered with the SEC), credit research, data and analytics, risk and compliance software, catastrophe models
- Scale
- Ratings on debt in ~140 countries and on tens of thousands of issuers; MA annualised recurring revenue ~$3.5bn at end-2025 (company); ~15,000+ employees (reported, verify)
- Financials (2025)
- Revenue $7.72bn (+9%); MIS $4.12bn (adjusted operating margin 63.6%); MA $3.60bn (adjusted operating margin 33.1%); net income ~$2.46bn; diluted EPS $13.67, adjusted $14.94; 2026 adjusted EPS guidance $16.40–17.00 (Q4 2025 earnings release, February 18, 2026)
- Market share
- With S&P Global Ratings, roughly 80% of US credit ratings revenue; Fitch is a distant third (SEC Office of Credit Ratings annual reports put the three largest at ~95% of ratings outstanding, verify current figures)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Railroad ratings (1909); issuer-pays and NRSRO status (1970s); spin-off from D&B and Berkshire anchor (2000); KMV and the build of Moody's Analytics (2002–08); the structured-finance boom and the 2007–08 mortgage-rating collapse; $864m DOJ/states settlement (2017); Bureau van Dijk (2017); RMS (2021); US downgrade to Aa1 (2025)
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1909
Railroad Ratings and the Founding
Founding / launch
1975
Issuer Pays and NRSRO Status
Pricing change / regulatory designation
2000
Spin Off From Dun and Bradstreet
Spin-off
2002
KMV and the Build of Moodys Analytics
Acquisition / pivot
2006
Structured Finance Boom and Mortgage Ratings
Failure (of product quality and governance)
2017
Bureau van Dijk Acquisition
Acquisition
2017
DOJ and States 864m Settlement
Regulatory settlement
2021
RMS Acquisition and Data Pivot
Acquisition
2025
US Sovereign Downgrade
Rating action (a product decision with regulatory and political consequences)