Moody’s jumps as Q4 results beat expectations and 2026 outlook points to continued growth

Moody’s Corporation (MCO) is up 5.5% today. Here is some analysis on what might have caused this price movement.

Analysis: The stock appears to be rising after the company posted a fourth-quarter earnings beat and issued a 2026 outlook that investors viewed as solid. Strength in the ratings business tied to debt issuance activity, alongside continued growth in the analytics segment, likely helped sentiment.

Details:

Moody’s reported fourth-quarter 2025 adjusted EPS of $3.64, with GAAP EPS of $3.41.

Quarterly revenue was $1.89 billion, up 13% year over year, with growth across both major operating segments.

Moody’s Investors Service revenue rose 17% to $946 million, reflecting stronger issuance-related activity across several finance categories.

For full-year 2026, the company guided to adjusted EPS of $16.40 to $17.00 and indicated plans for approximately $2 billion of share repurchases (subject to conditions), alongside a quarterly dividend of $1.03 per share.

Sources:

Moody’s Investor Relations

Associated Press

Zacks Investment Research

Disclaimer: This price movement analysis was generated with the help of AI. Please double-check the information provided for mistakes.

$MCO Insider Trading Activity

$MCO insiders have traded $MCO stock on the open market 12 times in the past 6 months. Of those trades, 0 have been purchases and 12 have been sales.

Here’s a breakdown of recent trading of $MCO stock by insiders over the last 6 months:

ROBERT FAUBER (President and CEO) has made 0 purchases and 11 sales selling 6,459 shares for an estimated $3,200,844.
RICHARD G STEELE (SVP - General Counsel) sold 26 shares for an estimated $12,841

To track insider transactions, check out Quiver Quantitative's insider trading dashboard.

$MCO Hedge Fund Activity

We have seen 661 institutional investors add shares of $MCO stock to their portfolio, and 620 decrease their positions in their most recent quarter.

Here are some of the largest recent moves:

UBS AM, A DISTINCT BUSINESS UNIT OF UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC removed 4,118,858 shares (-74.6%) from their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $2,104,118,609
EGERTON CAPITAL (UK) LLP added 773,409 shares (+inf%) to their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $395,095,987
PRICE T ROWE ASSOCIATES INC /MD/ added 726,971 shares (+73.5%) to their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $371,373,135
WINSLOW CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, LLC removed 706,941 shares (-96.7%) from their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $361,140,809
BLACKROCK, INC. removed 623,303 shares (-4.3%) from their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $318,414,337
CITADEL ADVISORS LLC added 602,485 shares (+215.4%) to their portfolio in Q3 2025, for an estimated $287,072,052
JPMORGAN CHASE & CO removed 538,538 shares (-52.1%) from their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $275,112,137

To track hedge funds' stock portfolios, check out Quiver Quantitative's institutional holdings dashboard.

$MCO Government Contracts

We have seen $15,987,697 of award payments to $MCO over the last year.

Here are some of the awards which we have have seen pay out the most over the last year:

CREDIT REPORT PULLS, OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE (O&M); DEVELOPMENT, MODERNIZATION, AND ENHANCEMENT (DME) SE...: $5,500,000
MOODY'S ANALYTICS SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES: $1,119,548
COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL MORTGAGE AND CLIMATE (CARMAC) DATA SUBSCRIPTION: $969,687
ELECTRONIC INFO RETRIEVAL PLATFORM: $950,212
CREDIT LENS, RISK CALC AND MORTGAGE PORTFOLIO ANALYZER TOOLS FOR THE INNOVATION CENTER: $780,000

To track government contracts to publicy traded companies, check out Quiver Quantitative's government contracts dashboard.

$MCO Congressional Stock Trading

Members of Congress have traded $MCO stock 1 times in the past 6 months. Of those trades, 0 have been purchases and 1 have been sales.

Here’s a breakdown of recent trading of $MCO stock by members of Congress over the last 6 months:

REPRESENTATIVE VAL T. HOYLE sold up to $15,000 on 09/23.

To track congressional stock trading, check out Quiver Quantitative's congressional trading dashboard.

$MCO Analyst Ratings

Wall Street analysts have issued reports on $MCO in the last several months. We have seen 6 firms issue buy ratings on the stock, and 0 firms issue sell ratings.

Here are some recent analyst ratings:

Daiwa Capital issued a "Outperform" rating on 01/13/2026
Goldman Sachs issued a "Buy" rating on 12/16/2025
JP Morgan issued a "Overweight" rating on 10/23/2025
Evercore ISI Group issued a "Outperform" rating on 10/14/2025
Deutsche Bank issued a "Buy" rating on 10/01/2025
Seaport Global issued a "Buy" rating on 10/01/2025

To track analyst ratings and price targets for $MCO, check out Quiver Quantitative's $MCO forecast page.

$MCO Price Targets

Multiple analysts have issued price targets for $MCO recently. We have seen 12 analysts offer price targets for $MCO in the last 6 months, with a median target of $550.0.

Here are some recent targets:

George Tong from Goldman Sachs set a target price of $532.0 on 02/09/2026
Jason Haas from Wells Fargo set a target price of $660.0 on 01/14/2026
Toni Kaplan from Morgan Stanley set a target price of $526.0 on 01/13/2026
Kazuya Nishimura from Daiwa Capital set a target price of $590.0 on 01/13/2026
David Motemeden from Evercore ISI Group set a target price of $620.0 on 01/08/2026
Shlomo Rosenbaum from Stifel set a target price of $574.0 on 01/05/2026
Sean Kennedy from Mizuho set a target price of $550.0 on 10/28/2025

This article is not financial advice. See Quiver Quantitative's disclaimers for more information. Note that there may be inaccuracies due to mistakes in ticker-mapping, and other anomalies.