S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) Short Interest Up 25.3% in February

S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) was the target of a large growth in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 3,620,000 shares, a growth of 25.3% from the February 13th total of 2,890,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,320,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.7 days. Approximately 1.2% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On S&P Global

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in S&P Global by 52.0% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its stake in S&P Global by 12.6% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 27,598 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $14,198,000 after purchasing an additional 3,093 shares in the last quarter. Eastern Bank boosted its stake in S&P Global by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 50,157 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $24,980,000 after purchasing an additional 1,530 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in S&P Global in the third quarter worth $27,170,000. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in S&P Global by 53.8% in the third quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,536 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,784,000 after purchasing an additional 1,936 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on S&P Global from $599.00 to $608.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Mizuho started coverage on S&P Global in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $599.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on S&P Global from $595.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. UBS Group lifted 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. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded S&P Global from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $590.86.

S&P Global Price Performance

Shares of SPGI stock opened at $490.26 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $513.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $510.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market cap of $150.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. S&P Global has a one year low of $407.69 and a one year high of $545.39.

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 return on equity of 14.33% and a net margin of 27.12%. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.13 EPS. On average, analysts expect that S&P Global will post 17.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

S&P Global Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th were paid a $0.96 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 26th. This represents a $3.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. This is a positive change from S&P Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. S&P Global’s payout ratio is currently 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.