Cerity Partners LLC Lowers Holdings in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Cerity Partners LLC lowered its holdings in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 178,371 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 3,497 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in S&P Global were worth $90,094,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of S&P Global by 52.0% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 658,766 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $328,632,000 after purchasing an additional 225,370 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of S&P Global by 12.6% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 27,598 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $14,198,000 after buying an additional 3,093 shares during the period. Eastern Bank boosted its position in shares of S&P Global by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 50,157 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $24,980,000 after buying an additional 1,530 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of S&P Global by 19.1% in the 4th quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 37,746 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $18,799,000 after buying an additional 6,051 shares during the period. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in shares of S&P Global in the 3rd quarter valued at $27,170,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SPGI has been the subject of several research reports. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on S&P Global from $599.00 to $608.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. StockNews.com cut shares of S&P Global from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of S&P Global from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of S&P Global from $595.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on S&P Global from $617.00 to $633.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, S&P Global has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $590.86.

S&P Global Trading Down 7.7 %

SPGI opened at $451.47 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.85. S&P Global Inc. has a one year low of $405.23 and a one year high of $545.39. The company has a market cap of $141.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.56, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $513.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $509.15.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The business services provider reported $3.77 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.41 by $0.36. S&P Global had a net margin of 27.12% and a return on equity of 14.33%. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.13 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that S&P Global Inc. will post 17.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

S&P Global Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 26th were given a $0.96 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 26th. This is a boost from S&P Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. This represents a $3.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.85%. S&P Global’s payout ratio is 31.09%.

S&P Global Company 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.