Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Reduces Stock Holdings in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lessened its holdings in shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) by 6.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 16,848 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,201 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in S&P Global were worth $8,391,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of S&P Global during the 4th quarter valued at about $527,207,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of S&P Global by 71,024.1% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 619,491 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $308,525,000 after buying an additional 618,620 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in S&P Global during the third quarter worth about $224,976,000. FMR LLC raised its position in S&P Global by 6.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,965,369 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,081,830,000 after acquiring an additional 369,598 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new position in S&P Global in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $144,091,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $617.00 to $633.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Mizuho assumed coverage on shares of S&P Global in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $599.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $595.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on S&P Global from $576.00 to $590.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on S&P Global from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $590.86.

S&P Global Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of SPGI opened at $490.26 on Wednesday. S&P Global Inc. has a 52-week low of $407.69 and a 52-week high of $545.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $513.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $510.73. The company has a market capitalization of $150.90 billion, a PE ratio of 39.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The business services provider reported $3.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.13 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that S&P Global Inc. will post 17.11 EPS for the current year.

S&P Global Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th were given a dividend of $0.96 per share. This represents a $3.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 26th. This is a positive change from S&P Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. S&P Global’s payout ratio is presently 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.