Moody's (MCO) Q3 Earnings: What To Expect

Credit rating agency Moody's (NYSE:MCO) will be reporting earnings this Wednesday before market hours. Here’s what to look for.

Moody's beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 2.9% last quarter, reporting revenues of $1.90 billion, up 4.5% year on year. It was a strong quarter for the company.

Is Moody's a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.

This quarter, analysts are expecting Moody’s revenue to grow 8.1% year on year to $1.96 billion, slowing from the 23.2% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $3.68 per share.

Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Moody's has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates twice over the last two years.

Looking at Moody’s peers in the capital markets segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. FactSet delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 6.2%, beating analysts’ expectations by 0.6%, and Morgan Stanley reported revenues up 18.5%, topping estimates by 9.2%. FactSet traded down 14% following the results while Morgan Stanley was up 3%.

Read our full analysis of FactSet’s results here and Morgan Stanley’s results here.

Questions about potential tariffs and corporate tax changes have caused much volatility in 2025. While some of the capital markets stocks have shown solid performance in this choppy environment, the group has generally underperformed, with share prices down 4.9% on average over the last month. Moody's is down 2.7% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $544.24 (compared to the current share price of $475.06).

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