Marshall Wace LLP Buys 95,401 Shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) by 32.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 389,308 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 95,401 shares during the quarter. Marshall Wace LLP owned 0.12% of S&P Global worth $173,631,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of SPGI. Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of S&P Global in the 2nd quarter worth $1,561,000. Evergreen Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of S&P Global by 10.2% in the second quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 2,752 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,227,000 after buying an additional 254 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its holdings in shares of S&P Global by 7.3% in the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 54,314 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $24,224,000 after purchasing an additional 3,706 shares in the last quarter. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC grew its stake in shares of S&P Global by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC now owns 21,501 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,589,000 after buying an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in shares of S&P Global in the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,690,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other S&P Global news, EVP Steven J. Kemps sold 2,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.55, for a total value of $1,327,185.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $715,205.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Edouard Tavernier sold 500 shares of S&P Global stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.55, for a total transaction of $245,775.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,217 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,496,816.35. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Steven J. Kemps sold 2,700 shares of S&P Global stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $491.55, for a total transaction of $1,327,185.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $715,205.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 17,862 shares of company stock valued at $8,645,727 in the last ninety days. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

S&P Global Price Performance

NYSE:SPGI opened at $520.85 on Tuesday. S&P Global Inc. has a 52 week low of $340.49 and a 52 week high of $528.02. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $162.97 billion, a PE ratio of 58.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $499.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $456.01.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $4.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $3.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.12 EPS. S&P Global’s revenue was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that S&P Global Inc. will post 14.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of S&P Global from $535.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Oppenheimer upped their target price on S&P Global from $486.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on S&P Global from $500.00 to $552.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on S&P Global from $532.00 to $537.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded S&P Global to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $548.18.

S&P Global 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.