Van ECK Associates Corp Acquires 237 Shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,908 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 237 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in S&P Global were worth $3,484,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in S&P Global by 18.5% during the 3rd quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,409 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $515,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors lifted its stake in shares of S&P Global by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 1,523 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $671,000 after buying an additional 87 shares during the period. Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning acquired a new stake in S&P Global during the fourth quarter worth about $1,644,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its stake in S&P Global by 54.2% during the fourth quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 3,172 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,397,000 after acquiring an additional 1,115 shares during the period. Finally, Aspiriant LLC acquired a new position in S&P Global in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $398,000. 87.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on S&P Global from $480.00 to $482.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of S&P Global from $442.00 to $446.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $422.00 to $452.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of S&P Global from $480.00 to $483.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of S&P Global in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $462.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other S&P Global news, CEO Douglas L. Peterson sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $424.74, for a total value of $2,548,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 162,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,032,992.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

S&P Global Stock Performance

NYSE SPGI opened at $425.76 on Tuesday. S&P Global Inc. has a 1-year low of $340.49 and a 1-year high of $461.16. The company has a 50 day moving average of $422.48 and a 200-day moving average of $420.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market cap of $133.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.73, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.14.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The business services provider reported $4.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by $0.33. S&P Global had a return on equity of 12.20% and a net margin of 22.01%. The firm had revenue of $3.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.39 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that S&P Global Inc. will post 14.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

S&P Global Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 29th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 28th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. S&P Global’s dividend payout ratio is 40.81%.

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.