CNB Bank Boosts Holdings in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

CNB Bank grew its position in shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) by 6.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,024 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 64 shares during the quarter. CNB Bank’s holdings in S&P Global were worth $520,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in 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 worth $1,582,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its holdings in shares of S&P Global by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 74,479 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $37,093,000 after buying an additional 2,413 shares during the period. Wealthspire Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of S&P Global by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 768 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $383,000 after buying an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. GHE LLC boosted its stake in shares of S&P Global by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. GHE LLC now owns 13,504 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,725,000 after buying an additional 274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its holdings in S&P Global by 29.0% during the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 10,379 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,169,000 after acquiring an additional 2,335 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. UBS Group raised their target price on S&P Global from $555.00 to $575.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of 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. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of S&P Global from $616.00 to $589.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of 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, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of S&P Global in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $600.00 price target for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $592.71.

S&P Global Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of NYSE:SPGI opened at $515.88 on Friday. 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 capitalization of $158.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.20. S&P Global Inc. has a 52-week low of $427.14 and a 52-week high of $545.39. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $505.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $503.52.

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

S&P Global Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.96 per share. This represents a $3.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 26th. S&P Global’s payout ratio is 30.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other S&P Global news, EVP Sally Moore sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $510.43, for a total transaction of $255,215.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 5,131 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,619,016.33. This represents a 8.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.