S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) Shares Acquired by AIA Group Ltd

AIA Group Ltd raised its stake in shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) by 11.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,040 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 499 shares during the quarter. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in S&P Global were worth $2,220,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Peterson Wealth Services acquired a new stake in shares of S&P Global in the fourth quarter worth $254,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its stake in shares of S&P Global by 77.2% in the fourth quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 810 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $357,000 after acquiring an additional 353 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of S&P Global by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 30,732 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $13,538,000 after acquiring an additional 1,648 shares during the period. Finally, Oakworth Capital Inc. increased its stake in shares of S&P Global by 31.2% in the fourth quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. now owns 101 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SPGI has been the topic of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $480.00 to $483.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Barclays raised their price target on shares of S&P Global from $500.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of S&P Global in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of S&P Global from $460.00 to $442.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of S&P Global in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $462.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other S&P Global news, CEO Douglas L. Peterson sold 6,000 shares of S&P Global stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $424.74, for a total transaction 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 $69,032,992.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

S&P Global Stock Performance

SPGI opened at $413.37 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $132.39 billion, a PE ratio of 50.23, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.15. S&P Global Inc. has a twelve month low of $338.92 and a twelve month high of $461.16. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $425.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $415.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last posted its quarterly 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.54 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that S&P Global Inc. will post 14.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

S&P Global Increases Dividend

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