Moody’s shares climb after record Q1 results and outlook update

Moody’s Corporation (MCO) is up 3.1% today. Here is some analysis on what might have caused this price movement.

Analysis: The move higher appears tied to Moody’s first-quarter 2026 earnings release, which highlighted record quarterly results and came in ahead of market expectations on profitability. Investors also reacted to the company’s updated full-year 2026 outlook metrics, which signaled confidence in demand trends across its ratings and analytics businesses.

Details:

Moody’s reported first-quarter adjusted EPS of $4.33, modestly above consensus expectations.

Quarterly revenue was roughly $2.08–$2.10 billion, slightly ahead of forecasts and higher year over year.

The company announced it updated select metrics within its full-year 2026 outlook alongside the earnings release.

Moody’s also reported first-quarter profit of about $661 million, reinforcing the “record results” framing in its release.

Sources:

Moody’s Corporation Investor Relations, Associated Press, Investing.com

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 16 times in the past 6 months. Of those trades, 0 have been purchases and 16 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 9 sales selling 10,427 shares for an estimated $4,960,393.
MICHAEL L WEST (President, Moody's Investors) has made 0 purchases and 3 sales selling 7,577 shares for an estimated $3,590,640.
RICHARD G STEELE (SVP - General Counsel) has made 0 purchases and 2 sales selling 401 shares for an estimated $184,107.
JASON D PHILLIPS (Chief Acctg Off & Controller) sold 333 shares for an estimated $157,437
NOEMIE CLEMENCE HEULAND (SVP & Chief Financial Officer) sold 100 shares for an estimated $46,587

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

$MCO Hedge Fund Activity

We have seen 622 institutional investors add shares of $MCO stock to their portfolio, and 602 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 removed 586,662 shares (-66.5%) from their portfolio in Q4 2025, for an estimated $299,696,282
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 $20,430,518 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 Analyst Ratings

Wall Street analysts have issued reports on $MCO in the last several months. We have seen 2 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

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 10 analysts offer price targets for $MCO in the last 6 months, with a median target of $545.0.

Here are some recent targets:

Jason Haas from Wells Fargo set a target price of $560.0 on 04/13/2026
Toni Kaplan from Morgan Stanley set a target price of $489.0 on 04/07/2026
Sean Kennedy from Mizuho set a target price of $524.0 on 02/24/2026
Manav Patnaik from Barclays set a target price of $550.0 on 02/23/2026
Shlomo Rosenbaum from Stifel set a target price of $540.0 on 02/19/2026
David Motemeden from Evercore ISI Group set a target price of $610.0 on 02/19/2026
Andrew Steinerman from JP Morgan set a target price of $560.0 on 02/19/2026

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.