Blue Trust Inc. Sells 1,806 Shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Blue Trust Inc. lessened its stake in shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) by 46.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,091 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,806 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in S&P Global were worth $1,041,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in S&P Global in the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. First Personal Financial Services bought a new position in shares of S&P Global in the third quarter worth about $29,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in shares of S&P Global during the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. boosted its stake in S&P Global by 77.1% during the 3rd quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 62 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Finally, Dunhill Financial LLC grew its holdings in S&P Global by 94.4% in the 3rd quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 70 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on SPGI shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $600.00 to $585.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of S&P Global from $599.00 to $608.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $595.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group lifted their target price on S&P Global from $605.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on S&P Global from $576.00 to $590.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, S&P Global currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $587.92.

S&P Global Trading Down 0.5 %

SPGI opened at $539.77 on Friday. S&P Global Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $407.69 and a fifty-two week high of $545.39. The company has a market cap of $167.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $507.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $507.13.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The business services provider reported $3.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.41 by $0.36. S&P Global had a return on equity of 13.72% and a net margin of 25.80%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.13 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that S&P Global Inc. will post 15.34 earnings per share for the current year.

S&P Global Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.96 per share. This is a positive change from S&P Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 26th. This represents a $3.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. S&P Global’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.13%.

S&P Global Profile

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.