Stifel Nicolaus Cuts S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) Price Target to $442.00

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) had its target price cut by equities research analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $460.00 to $442.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the business services provider’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ price target points to a potential upside of 7.14% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the company. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of S&P Global in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $480.00 price objective on shares of S&P Global in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Raymond James raised their price objective on S&P Global from $422.00 to $452.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of S&P Global in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on S&P Global from $480.00 to $483.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $462.00.

S&P Global Stock Performance

SPGI opened at $412.56 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $132.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.15. S&P Global has a 52-week low of $338.92 and a 52-week high of $461.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. The business’s fifty day moving average is $424.73 and its 200-day moving average is $415.57.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The business services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. S&P Global had a return on equity of 11.34% and a net margin of 21.02%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.54 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that S&P Global will post 14.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Douglas L. Peterson sold 6,000 shares of S&P Global stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $424.74, for a total transaction of $2,548,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 162,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $69,032,992.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On S&P Global

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of S&P Global by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,796,066 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $12,685,243,000 after acquiring an additional 339,097 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of S&P Global by 13.2% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,579,943 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,769,787,000 after acquiring an additional 881,215 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of S&P Global by 8.2% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,658,865 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,067,807,000 after acquiring an additional 428,737 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of S&P Global by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 5,502,039 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,423,762,000 after acquiring an additional 616,732 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of S&P Global during the fourth quarter worth about $1,652,862,000. 87.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

S&P Global Company Profile

S&P Global Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics, and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity, and automotive markets. It operates through S&P Global Market Intelligence, S&P Global Ratings, S&P Global Commodity Insights, S&P Global Mobility, S&P Dow Jones Indices, and S&P Global Engineering Solutions segments.