Lafayette Investments Inc. Buys New Stake in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Lafayette Investments Inc. bought a new stake in shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 506 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $223,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in SPGI. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new position in S&P Global in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in S&P Global in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group lifted its holdings in S&P Global by 64.1% in the 4th quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 64 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in S&P Global by 45.8% in the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 86 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fortis Group Advisors LLC acquired a new position in S&P Global in the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SPGI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $480.00 to $483.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 1st. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $480.00 target price on shares of S&P Global in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of S&P Global in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of S&P Global from $422.00 to $452.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of S&P Global from $500.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, S&P Global presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $462.00.

Insider Transactions at S&P Global

In other news, CEO Douglas L. Peterson sold 6,000 shares of the company’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 value of $2,548,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 162,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,032,992.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

S&P Global Stock Performance

NYSE SPGI traded down $2.02 on Friday, hitting $411.35. The stock had a trading volume of 294,598 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,295,863. S&P Global Inc. has a one year low of $338.92 and a one year high of $461.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock has a market cap of $131.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.15. The company’s 50-day moving average is $425.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $415.25.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last posted its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $3.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.54 EPS. S&P Global’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that S&P Global Inc. will post 14.08 earnings per share for the current year.

S&P Global Increases Dividend

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

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.