Moody’s Drops After Profit Falls on Bond Issuance Slowdown

Moody’s Corp., owner of the world’s second-largest provider of credit ratings, dropped after its fourth-quarter profit fell 30 percent as Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis slowed bond sales around the world.

Moody’s fell 1.7 percent to $38.31 a share, after sliding as much as 11.4 percent. The company’s net income dropped to $96.2 million, or 43 cents a share, from $137.4 million, or 58 cents, a year earlier, New York-based Moody’s said today in a statement. That was less than the average forecast of 49 cents of five analysts in a Bloomberg survey.