Corporate bonds & discount notes
 

Corporate Bond Ratings

The basis for determining the creditworthiness of corporate bonds relies on a corporate bond issuer ’s ability to make timely payments of interest and principal to corporate bond holders.

Two recognized agencies that assign corporate bonds credit ratings (or just corporate bond ratings) to corporate issues are Moody’s Investors Service (Moody's Ratings) and Standard & Poor’s (or S&P ratings).

The corporate bonds table below provides the investment grade corporate bond ratings and high yield corporate bond ratings levels of Moody's ratings and S&P ratings.

Corporate Bond Ratings for investment grade corporate bonds:

Corporate bond ratings / Quality

Moody's ratings

S&P ratings

 High Grade Corporate Bonds

Aaa

AAA

 

Aa1 

AA+ 

 

Aa2 

AA 

 

Aa2 

AA- 

Upper Medium Grade Corporate Bonds 

A1 

A+

 

A2

A

 

A3

A-

 Medium Grade Corporate Bonds

Baa1

BBB+

 

Baa2

BBB

 

Baa3

BBB-

 

High Yield Corporate bond ratings

Corporate bond ratings / Quality

Moody's ratings

S&P ratings

 Speculative Grade Corporate Bonds

Ba1

BB+

 

Ba2

BB

 

Ba3

BB-

 

B1

B+

 

B2

B

 

B3

B-

Highly Speculative Corporate Bonds

Caa

CCC+

 

Ca

CCC

 

C

CCC-

 

 

CC

 

 

C

 Default Corporate Bonds

 D

D

In their corporate bond ratings analysis, Moody's and S&P focus primarily on a corporate bond company’s overall financial condition as well as the industry the issuer represents.

Corporate bond ratings on individual corporate bonds issues are constantly being revised in light of industry and company changes, which can have a distinct effect on an issue ’s market price.

 


 TAX WEBSITES

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Google