506 Shares in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) Bought by Lafayette Investments Inc.

Lafayette Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 506 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $223,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of S&P Global during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group raised its stake in shares of S&P Global by 64.1% during the 4th quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 64 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of S&P Global during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA raised its stake in shares of S&P Global by 200.0% during the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 75 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harbour Investments Inc. raised its stake in shares of S&P Global by 45.8% during the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 86 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other S&P Global news, CEO Douglas L. Peterson sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $424.74, for a total value of $2,548,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 162,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,032,992.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on SPGI. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on S&P Global from $460.00 to $442.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Raymond James raised their target price on S&P Global from $422.00 to $452.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on S&P Global from $480.00 to $483.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Barclays raised their target price on S&P Global from $500.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $480.00 target price on shares of S&P Global in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $462.00.

S&P Global Price Performance

SPGI stock traded down $2.02 during trading on Friday, hitting $411.35. The stock had a trading volume of 294,598 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,295,863. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. S&P Global Inc. has a twelve month low of $338.92 and a twelve month high of $461.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $131.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.23, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.15. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $425.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $415.25.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The business services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). S&P Global had a return on equity of 11.34% and a net margin of 21.02%. The business had revenue of $3.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.54 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that S&P Global Inc. will post 14.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

S&P Global Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 27th were paid a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.88%. This is a positive change from S&P Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 26th. S&P Global’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.23%.

S&P Global Company Profile

S&P Global Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics, and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity, and automotive markets. It operates through S&P Global Market Intelligence, S&P Global Ratings, S&P Global Commodity Insights, S&P Global Mobility, S&P Dow Jones Indices, and S&P Global Engineering Solutions segments.