MCO - Moody's Corporation Overview

Quick Stats (as of April 21, 2026)

• Stock Price: $459.59 (-0.07% today, +4.91% this week)
• Market Cap: $81.81 billion
• Sector: Financial Exchanges and Data / Capital Markets

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📊 Short Interest Snapshot

Metric	Current	Change
Short Interest % of FF	1.97%	+51.2% (1 month)
Shares Short	3.24M	+37.9% (1 week)
Days to Cover	2.57	-
Cost to Borrow	0.42%	+8.6% (1 week)
Availability % of SI	4,238%	Very high
Utilization	2.35%	Low

Analysis: Short interest surged in early April, jumping from ~2.7M shares on April 9 to 3.36M by April 17 — a 20% spike in just over a week. This coincides with the stock's strong rally (+5.6% over 1 month). However, short interest remains very low at under 2% of free float, and extremely high availability (42x short interest) suggests minimal borrowing pressure. Cost to borrow is negligible at 0.42%. This is not a heavily shorted stock.

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📈 Options Sentiment

Metric	Current	Signal
Put/Call Ratio (PCR)	0.83	Bullish
20-day Mean PCR	0.93	-
PCR Z-Score	-1.63	Significantly below average

Analysis: Options sentiment is strongly bullish. The PCR of 0.83 is well below the 20-day average of 0.93 and sits at -1.63 standard deviations — indicating call buying is significantly outpacing puts. This suggests traders are positioning for upside.

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💼 Recent Earnings (April 22, 2026)

Moody's just reported Q1 2026 earnings today:

• EPS: $4.33 (adj.) vs. $4.22 est. ✅ Beat
• Revenue: $2.079B vs. $2.082B est. ❌ Slight miss
• FY2026 Guidance:
  • Adj EPS: $16.40-$17.00 (reaffirmed) vs. $16.65 est.
  • GAAP EPS: Raised from $15.00-$15.60 to $16.00-$16.60 vs. $15.33 est.
• Buyback Program: Boosted to $2.5 billion following the earnings beat

The stock has been rallying into and through earnings, up nearly 5% over the past month. The combination of an EPS beat, raised GAAP guidance, and aggressive buyback authorization has fueled optimism.

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🎯 ORTEX Stock Scores

Score	Rating	Context
Total Stock Score	77.9 / 100	Strong
Short Score	31.5 / 100	Low short pressure

Analysis: The total stock score of 77.9 indicates Moody's is performing well across ORTEX's composite metrics (fundamentals, technicals, momentum, value, quality). The low short score reflects minimal bearish positioning — consistent with the 1.97% SI % FF.

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📉 Technical Indicators

• RSI (14-day): 59.2 — Neutral to slightly overbought
• Price Performance YTD: -10.0% (stock still down for the year despite recent gains)
• Next Event: Q1 2026 Earnings Call (already occurred today)

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🔍 Analyst Outlook

• Analyst Return Potential: +16.2% upside to consensus price target
• Dividend Yield: 0.94%

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🏢 Peer Comparison

Top correlated peers (1-week performance):

Ticker	Company	Correlation	1-Week %
MSCI	MSCI Inc.	89.7	+4.56%
MORN	Morningstar	91.0	+4.20%
FDS	FactSet	86.3	+2.59%
NTRS	Northern Trust	71.2	+5.31%

MCO's +4.91% weekly gain is in line with peers in the financial data/exchanges space.

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🧠 Summary

MCO is a high-quality financial data company with minimal short interest (1.97% of FF), strong earnings execution (Q1 beat + raised guidance), and bullish options sentiment (PCR well below average). The recent short interest spike appears to be contrarian positioning against a strong rally, rather than a fundamental bearish thesis. With low borrowing costs, high availability, and a $2.5B buyback in play, the path of least resistance appears to be up. Analysts see 16% upside from current levels.

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⚠️ Reminder: This is not financial advice. All data is subject to change and may contain errors. Do your own research before making any investment decisions.