Mizuho Securities USA LLC Raises Position in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its stake in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) by 44.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 30,092 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,329 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC’s holdings in S&P Global were worth $14,987,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SPGI. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of S&P Global in the fourth quarter valued at about $527,207,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of S&P Global by 71,024.1% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 619,491 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $308,525,000 after purchasing an additional 618,620 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of S&P Global by 6.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,965,369 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,081,830,000 after purchasing an additional 369,598 shares during the period. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new stake in shares of S&P Global in the fourth quarter valued at about $144,091,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of S&P Global by 3.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,868,375 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,581,580,000 after purchasing an additional 292,436 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SPGI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Mizuho assumed coverage on shares of S&P Global in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $599.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com cut shares of S&P Global from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Oppenheimer cut their target price on shares of S&P Global from $590.00 to $580.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of S&P Global from $576.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, S&P Global currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $590.86.

S&P Global Price Performance

S&P Global stock opened at $497.62 on Friday. S&P Global Inc. has a 1 year low of $407.69 and a 1 year high of $545.39. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $513.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $510.42. The company has a market cap of $153.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.29, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.85.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The business services provider reported $3.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.41 by $0.36. S&P Global had a net margin of 27.12% and a return on equity of 14.33%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.13 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that S&P Global Inc. will post 17.11 earnings per share for the current year.

S&P Global Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 26th were issued a $0.96 dividend. This represents a $3.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. This is an increase from S&P Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 26th. S&P Global’s payout ratio is presently 31.09%.

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.