Moody’s (MCO) Is One of Warren Buffett’s Longest-Held Holdings; See Why

Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) is among the best Warren Buffett stocks.

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Buffett added Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) to his portfolio backmost successful 2000, erstwhile the fiscal services institution spun disconnected from Dun & Bradstreet. As of Q4 2010, Warren Buffett held 28.42 cardinal shares worthy $754.14 million. Although reduced, the company’s involvement successful Moody’s remains significant. As of Q4 2025, Berkshire holds 24.67 cardinal shares, which translates into a $12.60 cardinal stake.

Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) is wide held by hedge funds arsenic well, with 91 retired of 1,041 hedge funds remaining bullish connected the stock. The combined hedge money involvement successful the banal totals $25.54 cardinal arsenic of Q4 2025.

The bullish lawsuit for Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) rests connected regulatory privilege, embedded demand, and capital-light growth. As of April 20, 2026, implicit 80% of covering analysts support bullish ratings connected the stock, with the $535 statement terms people implying implicit 17% upside potential.

In its Q4 2025 capitalist letter, Ironvine Capital Partners, an independently owned, nationalist equity absorption firm, argued that Moody’s and S&P relation astir arsenic adjacent monopolies wrong planetary indebtedness markets, arsenic U.S. and European authorities beryllium connected their ratings erstwhile buying bonds and measuring risk. As a result, issuers that take not to get these ratings often look higher borrowing costs.

This dynamic puts Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) successful a beardown presumption to payment from GDP-linked indebtedness growth, which requires minimal capital. This leaves the institution with country for stock buybacks and dividend payments.

Meanwhile, Qualivian Investment Partners, an concern concern focused connected long-only nationalist equities, discussed successful its Q4 2025 capitalist missive however the moat is translating into performance, with the 3rd 4th of 2025 featuring adjusted EPS of $3.92, grounds gross of $2.01 cardinal (+11%), and an adjusted operating borderline of 53% (+500 ground points). The quarterly show was driven by strong, higher-margin MIS issuance activity.

Additionally, a bullish thesis connected Daniel’s Deep Dive noted that the company’s oligopolistic position, alongside S&P and Fitch, is reinforced by SEC support barriers, organization dependence connected outer ratings, proprietary verified data, and precocious switching costs, arguing that the hazard of AI-driven disruption whitethorn beryllium overstated. Daniel’s Deep Dive is simply a Substack newsletter focused connected cardinal banal analysis.

Management’s Q4 2025 telephone further reinforced this, reporting grounds full-year 2025 gross exceeding $7.7 billion, an adjusted borderline of 51.1%, and adjusted EPS of $14.94. The institution rated a grounds $6.6 trillion debt, delivered 60% maturation successful private-credit revenue, and achieved 97% recurring analytics gross successful the 4th quarter, on with 97% retention among GenAI customers.