In some ways, Moody's (NYSE: MCO) personifies the boring financial stock paradigm. If you bring up junk bonds in conversation, many people will walk away, and you may need to find a different party conversation starter.

However, Moody's does have, if not quite cachet, a reputation as the leading bond rating agency. Warren Buffett looks for top companies that participate in leading the U.S. economy, boring or not, and his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 13.5% of Moody's stock and is its largest investor. It makes up about 2.5% of the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio. It may not be the most exciting dinner talk, but Moody's stock has outperformed the S 500's gain over the past five years. Let's see why you might want to learn more about this outstanding stock.

Moody's offers risk assessment, financial information, and analytics services of many kinds, but is primarily known for its bond rating services. It rates various kinds of securities, including all kinds of bonds and notes, asset-backed securities, derivatives, and more. When you evaluate a bond, you'll see a rating of something like Aaa, the highest rating and representing the least credit risk, or B1, representing some speculation, or C, representing a low chance of recovery, with many ratings in between.

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Source Fool.com