AIA Group Ltd Purchases 499 Shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

AIA Group Ltd lifted its position in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) by 11.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,040 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 499 shares during the quarter. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in S&P Global were worth $2,220,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in S&P Global by 13.2% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,579,943 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,769,787,000 after acquiring an additional 881,215 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in S&P Global by 8.2% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,658,865 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,067,807,000 after acquiring an additional 428,737 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in S&P Global by 39.5% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,727,874 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,529,100,000 after acquiring an additional 1,056,097 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in S&P Global in the fourth quarter valued at $1,112,935,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its stake in S&P Global by 22.7% in the second quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 2,881,232 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,155,057,000 after acquiring an additional 533,417 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at S&P Global

In other S&P Global news, CEO Douglas L. Peterson sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $424.74, for a total transaction of $2,548,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now 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 available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on S&P Global from $460.00 to $442.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of S&P Global from $480.00 to $483.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of S&P Global from $422.00 to $452.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of S&P Global in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $480.00 price target on shares of S&P Global in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $462.00.

S&P Global Stock Performance

Shares of SPGI opened at $413.37 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. S&P Global Inc. has a one year low of $338.92 and a one year high of $461.16. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $425.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $415.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $132.39 billion, a PE ratio of 50.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.15.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The business services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). S&P Global had a return on equity of 11.34% and a net margin of 21.02%. The company had revenue of $3.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.54 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that S&P Global Inc. will post 14.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

S&P Global Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 27th were issued a $0.91 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 26th. This is a positive change from S&P Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%. S&P Global’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.23%.

About S&P Global

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.