Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Trims Stock Holdings in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lowered its position in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) by 16.5% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 25,041 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 4,936 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL’s holdings in S&P Global were worth $10,654,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SPGI. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of S&P Global during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,652,862,000. Capital International Investors raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 616,732 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of S&P Global by 24.4% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,502,798 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $662,013,000 after purchasing an additional 294,896 shares during the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its stake in shares of S&P Global by 11.9% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 2,624,308 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,156,060,000 after purchasing an additional 279,633 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its stake in shares of S&P Global by 348.2% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 336,640 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $148,284,000 after purchasing an additional 261,526 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

S&P Global Price Performance

S&P Global stock traded up $6.49 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $489.82. The stock had a trading volume of 823,325 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,090,975. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $153.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.91, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.16. S&P Global Inc. has a 1-year low of $340.49 and a 1-year high of $498.15. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $450.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $436.93.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The business services provider reported $4.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $3.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.39 billion. S&P Global had a return on equity of 12.20% and a net margin of 22.01%. As a group, analysts predict that S&P Global Inc. will post 14.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

S&P Global Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th will be issued a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 27th. S&P Global’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.81%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on SPGI. Oppenheimer upped their price target on S&P Global from $482.00 to $486.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 1st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on S&P Global from $442.00 to $446.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Barclays increased their price objective on S&P Global from $500.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on S&P Global from $500.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of S&P Global in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $490.55.

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.