S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI – Get Rating) in a report issued on Thursday. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the business services provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on SPGI. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of S&P Global from $393.00 to $401.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, February 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of S&P Global from $355.00 to $393.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, November 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an outperform rating and issued a $434.00 target price on shares of S&P Global in a research report on Monday, March 6th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of S&P Global from $388.00 to $403.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, February 6th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of S&P Global from $385.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, December 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $393.56.

S&P Global Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of SPGI opened at $334.49 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $107.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.86, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $356.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $341.36. S&P Global has a twelve month low of $279.32 and a twelve month high of $423.55.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 9th. The business services provider reported $2.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.47 by $0.07. S&P Global had a net margin of 29.05% and a return on equity of 9.84%. The business had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.88 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.15 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 40.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that S&P Global will post 12.45 EPS for the current year.

S&P Global Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 24th were paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. This is a positive change from S&P Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 23rd. S&P Global’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.29%.

Insider Buying and Selling at S&P Global

In other news, CEO Douglas L. Peterson sold 7,500 shares of S&P Global stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $360.52, for a total value of $2,703,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,816 shares in the company, valued at $57,977,384.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Saugata Saha sold 750 shares of S&P Global stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.47, for a total value of $277,102.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,337 shares in the company, valued at $1,232,921.39. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Douglas L. Peterson sold 7,500 shares of S&P Global stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $360.52, for a total transaction of $2,703,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 160,816 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $57,977,384.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 11,749 shares of company stock worth $4,266,185. 0.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of S&P Global

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of S&P Global by 15,444.3% in the second quarter. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. now owns 5,570,928 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $16,528,000 after buying an additional 5,535,089 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of S&P Global in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,112,935,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of S&P Global by 11,089.7% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,230,227 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $914,794,000 after buying an additional 2,210,296 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of S&P Global by 60.3% in the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,490,342 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,850,574,000 after buying an additional 2,065,830 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Okabena Investment Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of S&P Global by 21,669.8% in the fourth quarter. Okabena Investment Services Inc. now owns 1,700,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,700,000 after buying an additional 1,692,191 shares during the last quarter. 87.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About S&P Global

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S&P Global, Inc engages in the provision of transparent and independent ratings, benchmarks, analytics, and data to the capital and commodity markets worldwide. It operates through the following segments: Market Intelligence, Ratings, Commodity Insights, Mobility, Indices, and Engineering Solutions. The Market Intelligence segment provides multi-asset-class data and analytics integrated with purpose-built workflow solutions.