Moody’s Corp. (MCO – Analyst Report) reported earnings of $1.11 per share in the first quarter of 2015, surpassing with the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.03 and up from $1.00 reported a year ago.Â
Revenue Details
Revenues of $865.6 million came above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $828 million and increased 13% year over year.
Domestic revenues increased 17% year over year to $499.8 million, while International revenues increased 7% to $365.8 million.
Quarterly Segment Details
Segment-wise, Moody’s Investors Service (MIS) revenues increased 14% year over year to $602.3 million. MIS revenues in the U.S. rose 18% on a year-over-year basis, while revenues outside the U.S. grew 8% from the year-ago quarter.
Within the MIS segment, Global Corporate Finance revenues increased 13% year over year to $298.7 million, reflecting increased investment-grade bond issuance in the U.S. and growth in the number of credits monitored.
Global Structured Finance revenues rose 6% year over year to $101.3 million, primarily due to strong global collateralized loan obligation issuance and increased residential mortgage backed securities issuance in Europe and the U.S.
Global Financial Institutions revenues grew 10% year over year to $93.8 million, driven by higher revenues from U.S. finance companies and insurers. Global public project and infrastructure finance revenues were up 25% year over year to $100.7 million. The growth was primarily backed by strong growth in U.S. public finance and infrastructure finance issuance.
Moody’s Analytics (MA) revenues grew 11% year over year to $263.3 million bolstered by growth in research, data and analytics (RD&A) revenues (up 9%) and Enterprise risk solutions (ERS) revenues (up 29%). MA revenues in the U.S. were $128.3 million, up 17%, and revenues outside the U.S. were $135.0 million, up 5%.
Margin
First-quarter 2015 operating expense was $494.3 million, up 14% from the prior-year period, primarily due to increased headcount and added operating expense from 2014 acquisitions.
