AGF Management Ltd. Sells 3,756 Shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Key Points

• AGF Management Ltd. has reduced its stake in S&P Global Inc. by 10.6%, holding now 31,601 shares valued at approximately $16.06 million.
• S&P Global reported an earnings per share (EPS) of $4.43 for the latest quarter, surpassing analyst expectations and marking a 5.8% revenue increase year-over-year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.96, resulting in an annualized yield of 0.7% and a payout ratio of 29.54%.

AGF Management Ltd. lowered its position in shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI - Free Report) by 10.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 31,601 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 3,756 shares during the quarter. AGF Management Ltd.'s holdings in S&P Global were worth $16,056,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in S&P Global by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,779,003 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $15,130,711,000 after purchasing an additional 108,729 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in S&P Global by 19.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,276,043 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,631,568,000 after purchasing an additional 525,347 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in S&P Global by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,071,407 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,529,653,000 after purchasing an additional 357,790 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in S&P Global by 3.7% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,762,187 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,403,468,000 after purchasing an additional 97,324 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its position in S&P Global by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 2,184,312 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,087,853,000 after purchasing an additional 224,294 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.17% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on SPGI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $575.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on S&P Global from $616.00 to $589.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on S&P Global from $604.00 to $621.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on S&P Global from $629.00 to $603.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on S&P Global from $575.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $611.69.

S&P Global Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of S&P Global stock traded up $3.47 on Wednesday, hitting $562.53. The stock had a trading volume of 1,047,388 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,197,488. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $528.18 and a 200 day moving average of $512.02. S&P Global Inc. has a twelve month low of $427.14 and a twelve month high of $566.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $171.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.27, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.19.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $4.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.18 by $0.25. S&P Global had a return on equity of 15.11% and a net margin of 27.30%. The company had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.04 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that S&P Global Inc. will post 17.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

S&P Global Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 26th will be paid a $0.96 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 26th. This represents a $3.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. S&P Global's dividend payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

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.