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

Key Points

• True North Advisors LLC has invested approximately $2.66 million in S&P Global Inc. by acquiring 5,240 shares in the first quarter.
• Analysts have raised price targets for S&P Global, with Wells Fargo increasing its target from $632 to $660 and giving the stock an "overweight" rating.
• S&P Global reported Q2 earnings of $4.43 per share, exceeding expectations and marking a 5.8% year-over-year revenue increase.

True North Advisors LLC bought a new position in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 5,240 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,662,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in S&P Global by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,779,003 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $15,130,711,000 after buying an additional 108,729 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of S&P Global by 19.1% in the 4th 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 shares of S&P Global by 13.2% in the 4th 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 shares of S&P Global by 3.7% in the 1st 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 shares of S&P Global by 11.4% in the 4th 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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SPGI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of S&P Global from $632.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $604.00 to $621.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $575.00 to $620.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $575.00 to $625.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of 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, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $611.69.

S&P Global Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SPGI opened at $556.99 on Friday. The company's 50-day moving average is $525.43 and its 200 day moving average is $511.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.98. The company has a market capitalization of $170.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.19. S&P Global Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $427.14 and a fifty-two week high of $566.42.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $4.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.18 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $3.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.65 billion. S&P Global had a net margin of 27.30% and a return on equity of 15.11%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.04 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that S&P Global Inc. will post 17.11 earnings per share for the current year.

S&P Global Announces Dividend

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

About S&P Global

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.

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