Buffett Dumping More & More Moody's (MCO)

It wasn’t that long ago that we gave a list of stocks that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) needed to dump to help pay for its Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI) acquisition.  Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO) was one of those stocks.  He had already lightened up some since, and on Monday evening came a filing at the SEC confirming that Buffett was dumping more stock.

The filing was 3 groups of stock coming to a total of 3,454,791 share sold.  That leaves Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway with 31,902,602 shares.  We doubt he’ll be out of this position entirely by the end of the year, but the writing has been on the wall here for two years that the ratings agency game and dominance is over.

The weighted average sales price here was north of $26.00, and Moody’s common stock has a 52-week trading range of $15.57 to $31.79.  This was a $60 and $70 stock as recently as mid-2007 when the cracks in the ratings agency model were already coming front and center.  Buffett has finally capitulated on this one.

Jon C. Ogg