Franklin Resources Inc. Sells 32,248 Shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Franklin Resources Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,203,561 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 32,248 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in S&P Global were worth $599,410,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. grew its stake in shares of S&P Global by 7,666.7% in the fourth quarter. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. now owns 699 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $348,000 after purchasing an additional 690 shares during the last quarter. AIA Group Ltd raised its position in S&P Global by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 12,562 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,256,000 after purchasing an additional 1,349 shares during the last quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. lifted its holdings in S&P Global by 131.0% during the 4th quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 67 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of S&P Global by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 52,505 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $26,149,000 after buying an additional 3,267 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RWA Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of S&P Global by 370.6% in the fourth quarter. RWA Wealth Partners LLC now owns 33,490 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $16,679,000 after buying an additional 26,373 shares during the period. 87.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on SPGI. Citigroup initiated coverage on S&P Global in a research note on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $600.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of S&P Global from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Mizuho began coverage on shares of S&P Global in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $599.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price 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. Finally, 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 report on Thursday, February 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $590.86.

S&P Global Stock Up 1.2 %

SPGI stock opened at $508.48 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $515.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $510.02. The company has a market cap of $159.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.85. S&P Global Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $407.69 and a fifty-two week high of $545.39.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The business services provider reported $3.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.41 by $0.36. S&P Global had a return on equity of 14.33% and a net margin of 27.12%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.13 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that S&P Global Inc. will post 17.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

S&P Global Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th were issued a dividend of $0.96 per share. This is a boost from S&P Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. This represents a $3.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 26th. S&P Global’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.09%.

S&P Global Company Profile

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.