Moody's Q2 2026: revenue up 15%, EPS up 57%, buyback to $3.0 billion
Moody's blew past the quarter: revenue rose 15.0% to $2.19 billion, adjusted EPS of $4.68 beat the $4.28 consensus, and management lifted its buyback plan to as much as $3.00 billion. The catch is in the fine print: free-cash-flow guidance was trimmed and the margin target lowered slightly. Read the quarter as a capital-markets cycle still running hot, with cash conversion the thing to watch.
1 · Expected vs. Actual
Free preview belowDiluted GAAP EPS of $5.03 was up 57.0% year over year, and adjusted diluted EPS of $4.68 was up 31.0% and roughly $0.40 ahead of the $4.28 consensus. The gap between the two figures is largely a $0.18 billion gain on business divestitures that management strips out. Adjusted operating margin expanded 440 basis points to 55.3%, so the profit growth is coming from operating leverage rather than one-off items alone.
Revenue came in at $2.19 billion, up 15.0% from $1.90 billion a year earlier and 16.0% on an organic constant-currency basis. The engine was MIS, where revenue jumped 25.0% to $1.26 billion on broad issuance strength; Moody's Analytics grew just 4.0% to $0.93 billion, or 8.0% organic, held back by a divestiture. Transaction revenue, the swing factor in this business, rose to $0.90 billion from $0.70 billion, while recurring revenue of $1.28 billion now covers 58.8% of the top line.
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Figures on this page come from the company's original SEC filings. The analysis is generated automatically and checked against validation rules, but may still contain errors or omissions. Not investment advice. · Generated 2026-09-17
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