Sit Investment Associates Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Sit Investment Associates Inc. reduced its position in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) by 7.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,658 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,521 shares during the period. Sit Investment Associates Inc.’s holdings in S&P Global were worth $8,794,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of SPGI. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in S&P Global by 52.0% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 658,766 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $328,632,000 after purchasing an additional 225,370 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of S&P Global by 12.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 27,598 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $14,198,000 after purchasing an additional 3,093 shares in the last quarter. Eastern Bank grew its stake in S&P Global by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 50,157 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $24,980,000 after buying an additional 1,530 shares during the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC increased its position in S&P Global by 19.1% during the 4th quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 37,746 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $18,799,000 after buying an additional 6,051 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in S&P Global in the third quarter valued at about $27,170,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SPGI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered S&P Global from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of S&P Global from $576.00 to $590.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $595.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $599.00 to $608.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Oppenheimer reduced their target price on S&P Global from $590.00 to $580.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $590.86.

S&P Global Price Performance

NYSE:SPGI opened at $451.47 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $513.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $509.23. S&P Global Inc. has a 1-year low of $407.69 and a 1-year high of $545.39. The firm has a market cap of $141.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The business services provider reported $3.77 earnings per share 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 previous year, the business earned $3.13 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that S&P Global Inc. will post 17.11 EPS for the current year.

S&P Global Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th were given a dividend of $0.96 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 26th. This represents a $3.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.85%. This is an increase from S&P Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. S&P Global’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

About S&P Global

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.