Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. Takes Position in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 15,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,690,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in SPGI. Sachetta LLC increased its position in shares of S&P Global by 103.4% during the second quarter. Sachetta LLC now owns 59 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Pineridge Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of S&P Global in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new position in S&P Global during the second quarter worth $31,000. First Pacific Financial boosted its stake in shares of S&P Global by 49.0% during the 2nd quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 73 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new position in S&P Global during the second quarter valued at approximately $36,000. 87.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on SPGI. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of S&P Global from $535.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of S&P Global to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on S&P Global from $532.00 to $537.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of S&P Global from $530.00 to $564.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on S&P Global from $550.00 to $610.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, S&P Global has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $548.18.

S&P Global Stock Performance

Shares of S&P Global stock opened at $523.67 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $163.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.17. S&P Global Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $340.49 and a fifty-two week high of $528.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $499.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $455.14.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $4.04 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.37. S&P Global had a return on equity of 13.03% and a net margin of 25.03%. The firm had revenue of $3.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.42 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.12 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that S&P Global Inc. will post 14.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

S&P Global Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th were issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 27th. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. S&P Global’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.81%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other S&P Global news, Director Robert P. Kelly sold 7,662 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $481.28, for a total transaction of $3,687,567.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 15,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,618,662.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Douglas L. Peterson sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $483.60, for a total transaction of $3,385,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 154,912 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $74,915,443.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Robert P. Kelly sold 7,662 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $481.28, for a total transaction of $3,687,567.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 15,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,618,662.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 17,862 shares of company stock valued at $8,645,727. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.