Moody's Corporation (MCO) Business Profile

What it does

Moody’s Corporation is a New York City-headquartered risk assessment company founded in 1909. Robert Fauber is President and Chief Executive Officer. It helps banks, insurers, investors, corporations and governments assess creditworthiness, identify risks, meet compliance needs and make decisions.

The company operates through Moody’s Analytics (MA) and Moody’s Investors Service (MIS). MA sells data, research, models and cloud-based tools that customers use in lending, underwriting, know-your-customer (KYC), insurance, financial-crime compliance, supply-chain assessment and risk management. Its tools combine information about companies, debt, properties, securities, people, economies, climate and other risk areas.

MIS provides credit ratings, research and risk analysis. A rating is an opinion on the credit risk of a debt issuer or obligation. Issuers use ratings when planning and marketing debt, while investors use ratings and research to assess securities and debt markets. MIS rates corporate, financial-institution and government obligations, as well as structured-finance securities.

The company also provides financial-instrument pricing services in Asia-Pacific, Second Party Opinions, Net Zero Assessments and certain non-ratings operations through MIS. Its wider approach is to put its data, analytical models and research into customers’ operating workflows, rather than supplying information only as standalone publications.

How it makes money

MA earns recurring revenue chiefly from subscriptions to its research, data, analytical tools and cloud-based decision solutions. Its three main activities are Research & Insights, Data & Information, and Decision Solutions. Decision Solutions includes subscription businesses for banking, insurance and KYC workflows. Customers can access the company’s proprietary data and analytics through software applications, cloud platforms, APIs and other delivery channels.

MIS earns most of its revenue from fees paid by debt issuers for ratings. Revenue therefore depends substantially on the dollar volume and number of debt securities issued in global capital markets. Annual arrangements with frequent issuers, debt-monitoring fees, commercial-paper and medium-term-note programs, bank-deposit ratings, insurance-financial-strength ratings and mutual-fund ratings partly reduce its dependence on new issuance. MIS also has recurring revenue from monitored credits, new mandates and value-based pricing.

The two units have different revenue patterns. MA is predominantly recurring: management said on the Q3 2026 call that recurring revenue represented about 99% of MA revenue. MIS has recurring elements, but its transaction revenue changes with issuance activity and with the mix of securities being rated. Management said on the call that investment-grade issuance growth and lower leveraged-finance activity produced different revenue outcomes because those markets have different fee characteristics.

In Q3 2026, Moody’s revenue topped $2 billion; it was reported on 21 October 2026 that the consensus expects current-fiscal-year revenue of $8.3 billion.

Customers and how it sells

Moody’s serves financial-services firms, investors, corporations, governments and public-sector bodies. MA’s customer base includes banks using lending and risk-management tools; insurers and reinsurers using catastrophe, casualty and other models; and organizations using company data and compliance tools for KYC, supplier assessment, fraud prevention and investigations. MIS serves debt issuers, investors and other participants in global debt markets.

The company operates across more than 40 countries and has 16,076 employees. Its workforce includes credit analysts, economists, data and operations analysts, software engineers, product managers, sales personnel, implementation teams, and corporate support staff. MA and MIS both have operations inside and outside the United States.

Customers use Moody’s through cloud applications, data feeds, APIs and embedded workflows. Management said on the Q3 2026 call that MA had 95% trailing-12-month customer retention. Management also said that MA data is being embedded in SAP’s supplier onboarding, assessment and monitoring workflows, and that the European Commission renewed an agreement for its Arachne risk-scoring and data-mining platform. The company does not disclose a customer concentration in the supplied information.

Suppliers and costs

Moody’s has no manufacturing operation. Its operating inputs include skilled employees, proprietary databases, analytical models, cloud-based software, technology infrastructure and third-party information. The company licenses financial information, market and index data, financial-statement data, research data, default data, security identifiers, AI software, software-development tools and libraries from third parties.

Some financial information, including security identifiers, certain pricing or index data and company financial data in selected markets, is available from a limited number of sources. Moody’s states that it is not dependent on a single data source for a material aspect of its business. It also uses generally available open-source software under permissive licenses.

Compensation, technology and data are central costs. The company had 16,076 employees in FY2025, spanning analytical, engineering, data, product, sales, legal, finance and other functions. Management said on the Q3 2026 call that MA was simplifying its portfolio, consolidating technology platforms and seeking efficiencies from AI while continuing investment in its data estate and technology.

Competitive position

MA competes in financial information and enterprise-risk software. Its Decision Solutions business competes with providers of software and analytical tools; Research & Insights competes with providers of economic data, financial research and analysis; and Data & Information competes with providers of commercial and financial data. MIS competes with other credit-rating agencies, investment banks and brokerage firms offering credit opinions and research. Many users of MIS ratings also conduct credit research internally.

No competing company is specifically named in the supplied information. Competition can affect product demand, pricing and the distribution of ratings. Regulations may also encourage greater competition among credit-rating agencies or lead to alternatives to credit ratings.

Moody’s owns and controls intellectual property including databases, publications, models, methodologies, software tools, trademarks and patents. MA’s products are designed to integrate that intellectual property into customer workflows. MIS’s position depends in part on the use of its credit ratings and research by issuers and investors across debt markets. Management said on the Q3 2026 call that first-time rating mandates increased 40% in the third quarter.

Our reading: Moody’s proprietary data, models and integrated workflow tools are a strong moat source because customers use them across lending, underwriting, KYC and risk-management processes. [item1; call_prepared]

Our reading: MIS’s credit-rating franchise has a meaningful moat from established issuer and investor use, but issuance-sensitive fees, competing research and regulation limit its durability. [item1; item1a; call_prepared]

Growth opportunities

Moody’s identifies growth opportunities in wider use of credit ratings, expanding global fixed-income markets, customer demand for integrated data and analytics, private credit, developing capital markets, emerging markets, and technology adoption. MA seeks to add customers and broaden existing relationships across use cases through cross-selling, upselling, pricing, new products, distribution channels and strategic partnerships. MIS growth depends on economic expansion, refinancing needs, capital-market development and demand for risk assessment.

Management said on the Q3 2026 call that refinancing needs across the United States and EMEA exceed $5.00 trillion over the next four years. It also said that rated private-credit deals grew by more than 40% year over year and that first-time rating mandates increased 40% in the third quarter. Management described AI infrastructure, data centers, power generation and transmission, renewable energy, carbon transition, defense, security and transportation infrastructure as areas requiring investment capital and debt financing.

AI is being deployed within Moody’s products and as a way for customers to access data and research through APIs, MCP-enabled interfaces and partner platforms. Management said that MA’s insurance annualized recurring revenue grew 10% in Q3 2026, while lending-suite annualized recurring revenue grew 12%. The company is also acquiring a minority stake in PhilRatings, a Philippine domestic credit-rating agency; management said that more than $100.0 billion of infrastructure investment is planned in the Philippines through 2030.

The company expects MA annualized recurring revenue growth in the high-single-digit percentage range and MIS revenue growth in the high-single-digit percentage range for the full year.

Structural risks

• MIS operates in a highly regulated industry. Laws and regulations can increase oversight, legal proceedings and defense costs, alter pricing, reduce the need for ratings, restrict information use or increase competition among credit-rating agencies.

• MIS revenue depends substantially on the amount and number of ratable debt securities issued in global capital markets. Interest rates, credit spreads, refinancing needs, merger activity, issuer financial health, securitization activity and market volatility can change issuance volumes and revenue.

• MA’s customers include banks, insurers and other financial-services providers that are themselves regulated. Their due-diligence requirements can be passed through to key suppliers such as MA, and new rules can affect product demand and operating costs.

• The company operates globally and faces foreign-exchange movements, restrictions on cash conversion, conflicting legal and compliance standards, tax consequences, data availability issues, collection risks, staffing challenges and local competitors with greater familiarity or institutional support.

• Moody’s moves data across national borders and faces cybersecurity, confidentiality and personal-information risks. Evolving data, cybersecurity, AI and intellectual-property laws can add compliance obligations and expose the company to penalties or operational changes.

• Management said on the Q3 2026 call that migration of some KYC customers from Orbis Catalyst to the MaxSight platform was behind schedule, and that the company was increasing migration efforts.

Bottom line

Our reading

Our reading: Moody’s is a risk-information and credit-assessment business with two connected earnings engines: recurring analytics and issuance-linked ratings. [item1; call_prepared]

Our reading: Its data, models, intellectual property and workflow integrations support recurring customer relationships, while ratings remain exposed to debt-market issuance cycles and regulation. [item1; item1a; call_prepared]

Our reading: AI, private credit, infrastructure financing and refinancing needs add routes for growth, but the company must execute platform migrations and sustain its analytical credibility. [call_prepared; call_qa]