EP Wealth Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 9,724 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $332,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SPGI. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of S&P Global by 2.2% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 25,744,251 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,875,846,000 after purchasing an additional 549,673 shares in the last quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of S&P Global by 1.6% during the first quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 9,329,611 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,216,570,000 after purchasing an additional 145,038 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of S&P Global by 3.0% during the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,368,385 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,195,628,000 after purchasing an additional 188,161 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of S&P Global by 0.4% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,940,550 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,042,765,000 after purchasing an additional 23,949 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of S&P Global by 49.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,318,418 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,446,412,000 after purchasing an additional 1,437,116 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on S&P Global from $460.00 to $451.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 28th. TheStreet downgraded S&P Global from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 27th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on S&P Global in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on S&P Global in a research report on Thursday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $453.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on S&P Global in a research report on Thursday, June 15th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, S&P Global has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $404.00.

S&P Global Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of S&P Global stock opened at $388.26 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $123.54 billion, a PE ratio of 53.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.12. S&P Global Inc. has a twelve month low of $279.32 and a twelve month high of $428.65. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $396.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $373.13. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The business services provider reported $3.12 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.12. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.05 billion. S&P Global had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 10.45%. S&P Global’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.81 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that S&P Global Inc. will post 12.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

S&P Global Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 12th. Investors of record on Monday, August 28th were paid a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.93%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 25th. S&P Global’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.72%.

Insider Activity at S&P Global

In other S&P Global news, insider Saugata Saha sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $384.43, for a total value of $76,886.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 2,934 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,127,917.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other S&P Global news, insider Adam Jason Kansler sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $387.38, for a total value of $3,873,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 20,961 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,119,872.18. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Saugata Saha sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $384.43, for a total transaction of $76,886.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 2,934 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,127,917.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 21,857 shares of company stock valued at $8,549,352. 0.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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 six segments: S&P Global Ratings, S&P Dow Jones Indices, S&P Global Commodity Insights, S&P Global Market Intelligence, S&P Global Mobility, and S&P Global Engineering Solutions.