For the second time in as many months, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKA) has cut its stake in Moody's Corp. (MCO).

Buffett's latest reduction of 794,388 shares came in multiple sales conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to a Securities and Exchange filing Thursday.

Buffett sold the shares at prices ranging from $26.30 to $27.74.

Buffett cut his Moody's stake by 8 million shares in mid-July, reducing his stake to about 40 million shares. He said at the time that he might decide to sell more shares.

Buffett has weathered criticism in the past year for his stake in Moody's, which owns Moody's Investors Service, one of the ratings agencies that has been criticized for the top grades it issued to mortgage-backed securities that later underperformed.

Moody's has been walloped in part by the drop in new debt issues requiring ratings.

Shares of Moody's closed at $24.26 on Thursday.

-By Lavonne Kuykendall, Dow Jones Newswires; (312) 750 4141; lavonne.kuykendall@dowjones.com