Credit Rating Change Tracker

Credit Rating Change Tracker monitors S&P, Moody's, and Fitch credit rating upgrades, downgrades, and outlook changes disclosed in SEC 8-K filings. When a public company's credit rating is changed by a major agency, they must disclose it within 4 business days — this actor captures those disclosures as they arrive, giving you a real-time stream of rating actions across all US public issuers.

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Why use Credit Rating Change Tracker?

1. Fixed income portfolio monitoring — Instantly alert on rating changes for bonds you hold. A downgrade from BBB- to BB+ ("fallen angel") can trigger forced selling by investment-grade-only funds.
2. Credit spread trading — Rating actions typically precede CDS spread moves. Catch the action before the spread widens.
3. Fallen angel / rising star tracking — Automatically flag any issuer crossing the investment-grade/high-yield boundary in either direction.
4. M&A due diligence — Pull a target company's full rating history to assess credit quality trends before an acquisition.
5. Sector-level credit stress detection — Cluster downgrades by industry to identify which sectors are under credit pressure before the equity market reacts.

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How to use

1. Open the actor on Apify Store and click Try for free.
2. Set daysBack (default 30) to define your lookback window.
3. Optionally filter by agency (S&P, Moody's, or Fitch) or action (upgrade, downgrade, etc.).
4. Paste comma-separated company names into issuers to restrict to specific companies.
5. Click Start. Results are a flat list of rating actions extracted from 8-K filings.

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Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
daysBack	number	30	How far back to search SEC EDGAR 8-K filings
agency	string	""	Filter by agency: "S&P", "Moody's", "Fitch" (empty = all three)
action	string	""	Filter by action: "upgrade", "downgrade", "affirmation", "outlook_change", "watch"
investmentGradeOnly	boolean	false	Only return issuers rated BBB-/Baa3 or above
issuers	string	""	Comma-separated company names to restrict search (e.g. "Ford Motor,GM")
maxResults	number	50	Maximum number of rating actions to return

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Output

Each record represents one rating action extracted from a SEC 8-K filing:

{
  "entity_name": "Ford Motor Company",
  "filing_date": "2026-08-14",
  "agency": "Moody's",
  "action": "downgrade",
  "new_rating": "Ba1",
  "outlook": "negative",
  "watch_status": null,
  "investment_grade": false,
  "accession_no": "0000037996-26-000221",
  "filing_url": "https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=..."
}

Output fields

Field	Type	Description
entity_name	string	Issuer company name from SEC EDGAR
filing_date	string	Date the 8-K was filed (YYYY-MM-DD)
agency	string	Rating agency: S&P, Moody's, or Fitch
action	string	upgrade, downgrade, affirmation, watch, outlook_change
new_rating	string	New credit rating (e.g. BBB+, Baa2, A-)
outlook	string	positive, negative, stable, developing (if disclosed)
watch_status	string	creditwatch_negative, watch_positive, etc. (if applicable)
investment_grade	boolean	true if rated BBB-/Baa3 or above
accession_no	string	SEC 8-K accession number for the source filing
filing_url	string	Link to SEC EDGAR filing page

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Rating scales

S&P / Fitch	Moody's	Category
AAA	Aaa	Prime (investment grade)
AA+/AA/AA-	Aa1/Aa2/Aa3	High grade
A+/A/A-	A1/A2/A3	Upper medium grade
BBB+/BBB/BBB-	Baa1/Baa2/Baa3	Lower medium grade (IG floor)
BB+/BB/BB-	Ba1/Ba2/Ba3	High yield / speculative
B+/B/B-	B1/B2/B3	Highly speculative
CCC and below	Caa and below	Substantial risk / distressed

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Cost estimation

Pay-Per-Event: $0.005 per actor start + $0.01 per rating action returned.

Use case	Actions	Estimated cost
30-day market sweep	~30–60	$0.30–$0.60/run
90-day history	~100–200	$1.00–$2.00/run
Single company history	5–20	$0.05–$0.20/run
Daily monitoring	~5–15/day	$0.05–$0.15/day

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FAQ

Does this cover all three major agencies (S&P, Moody's, Fitch)? Yes — the actor searches for 8-K filings that mention any of the three agencies and extracts the rating details from the text.

How quickly does new data appear after a rating change? SEC rules require 8-K filing within 4 business days of a material credit rating change. Most are filed within 1-2 days.

Does it catch outlook changes and creditwatch additions? Yes — action can be outlook_change or watch in addition to upgrade/downgrade.

What's the difference between a watch and an outlook change? A watch (CreditWatch/Review) signals a potential short-term rating change (usually resolved within 90 days). An outlook reflects the longer-term direction (12-24 months).

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Related actors

• Corporate Bond Issuance Tracker — New debt issuances by companies; credit rating affects spreads
• SEC Enforcement Actions Tracker — SEC fraud and regulatory actions that can precede downgrades
• Short Interest Tracker — High short interest often correlates with credit stress

Feedback

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Keywords: credit rating tracker, S&P rating upgrade downgrade, Moody's rating change, Fitch credit rating, sovereign bond rating, corporate bond rating, credit outlook change, credit watch alert, fixed income risk monitoring, macro credit events, bond rating scraper, credit rating data