Moody's Corporation (MCO) Announced Q1 2026 Earnings on April 22, 2026, Reporting "Both MIS and MA grew revenues by 8%".

For the first quarter, management noted that "Both MIS and MA grew revenues by 8%". The company reported "150 basis points of adjusted operating margin to 53.2%" and "adjusted diluted EPS of $4.33" for the quarter. In the first quarter, the company generated "free cash flow of $844 million" and "returned $1.7 billion through buybacks and dividends in the quarter". "MA revenue increased 8% in the first quarter" as reported, and "MIS delivered an adjusted operating margin of 66.7%".Management stated that "ratings issuance continues to reflect long-term funding needs tied to infrastructure, technology, private credit and energy transition". For the first quarter, "rated issuance surpassed $2 trillion for the first time," which was led by "near record investment-grade volumes". The company experienced "private credit related revenue in Ratings growing more than 80% year-over-year". The company also announced that "Christina Kosmowski will become Moody's Analytics CEO in June".Regarding product and partnership announcements, management highlighted "partnerships that significantly extend our distribution," noting that "Moody's license intelligence can now be accessed directly within enterprise AI environments such as ChatGPT Enterprise and Claude". The company also launched "a dedicated Moody's agent in Microsoft 365 CoPilot". In the ratings segment, the company was the first rating agency to publish "a methodology for stable coins" and is now "live on The Canton Network, making Moody's the first rating agency operating a node in the privacy-enabled blockchain ecosystem".The company stated that "full year guidance remains unchanged across revenue, adjusted operating margin and adjusted diluted EPS". The company "increased full year buyback guidance by $500 million to approximately $2.5 billion" for 2026.

For the second quarter, management expects "MIS revenue growth in the low to mid-teens with adjusted diluted EPS of approximately $4.15 to $4.30". The company expects to "close the sale of our Regulatory Solutions business on April 30".