Brown Advisory Inc. Sells 108,237 Shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Brown Advisory Inc. lowered its position in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI - Free Report) by 16.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 566,717 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 108,237 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. owned about 0.18% of S&P Global worth $287,949,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SPGI. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of S&P Global by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,176 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,582,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its holdings in S&P Global by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 74,479 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $37,093,000 after buying an additional 2,413 shares during the last quarter. GHE LLC raised its position in S&P Global by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. GHE LLC now owns 13,504 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $6,725,000 after acquiring an additional 274 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in S&P Global by 25.3% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,626 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $810,000 after acquiring an additional 328 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in S&P Global by 42.8% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,244 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $619,000 after acquiring an additional 373 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.17% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at S&P Global

In other news, EVP Sally Moore sold 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $510.43, for a total transaction of $255,215.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 5,131 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,619,016.33. The trade was a 8.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of S&P Global in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $600.00 price target on the stock. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on S&P Global from $616.00 to $589.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on S&P Global from $587.00 to $595.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on S&P Global from $618.00 to $565.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Argus upgraded S&P Global to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, S&P Global has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $596.79.

S&P Global Price Performance

NYSE:SPGI traded down $2.78 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $527.05. 816,683 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,229,109. The business's 50-day moving average price is $515.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $505.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market cap of $161.65 billion, a PE ratio of 41.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.19. S&P Global Inc. has a 12-month low of $427.14 and a 12-month high of $545.39.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $4.37 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.23 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $3.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.72 billion. S&P Global had a net margin of 27.27% and a return on equity of 14.68%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $4.01 EPS. On average, analysts expect that S&P Global Inc. will post 17.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

S&P Global Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 26th will be issued 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 0.73%. S&P Global's payout ratio is currently 30.16%.

S&P Global 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.