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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has reduced its stake in credit-rating company Moody’s Corp. by 7 percent, the fourth cut since July.
Berkshire sold 2.7 million shares and remains Moody’s biggest stockholder with 35.4 million, according to a regulatory filing. The Omaha-based Berkshire cut its Moody’s holding by 17 percent in July, 2 percent in September and 2.9 percent in October. The shares were sold Dec. 7 and Dec. 8 for $24.81 to $25.04 apiece.
Moody’s, whose founder John Moody created credit ratings in 1909, is suffering from reduced demand for debt analysis after the economic decline curbed fixed-income issuance.
The firm and rival Standard & Poor’s have been criticized by regulators and lawmakers for not foreseeing the wave in homeowner defaults that brought down the value of securities once awarded gold-standard AAA credit grades.
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