Moody’s (MCO) Falls on Evercore (EVR) Downgrade

Shares of Moody’s Corp. (NYSE:MCO) were down over 2 percent on the day as Evercore Partners (NYSE:EVR) downgraded them from "Overweight" to "Equal Weight."

The overall financial sector is under pressure today, as the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) was off 0.3% in recent trading.

Concerning Moody's, Evercore said they've had a "good run," and after being up 25 percent and reaching its price target of $33, they said they see a need to take a breather.

Evercore’s analysts wrote, “With the stock at our price target and some newfound choppiness in issuance, we are taking a breather and moving to an equal weight. Costs, as Moody’s management guided, are likely to remain a profit-margin issue in 2011 as Moody’s aggressively hires to prepare for new regulatory requirements.”

Moody's was trading at $32.14, falling $0.93, or 2.81 percent, as of 1:32 PM EDT.