William Blair Weighs in on S&P Global Inc.’s Q1 2024 Earnings (NYSE:SPGI)

S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) – Equities research analysts at William Blair lifted their Q1 2024 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for S&P Global in a note issued to investors on Monday, April 15th. William Blair analyst A. Nicholas now anticipates that the business services provider will post earnings of $3.69 per share for the quarter, up from their previous forecast of $3.57. The consensus estimate for S&P Global’s current full-year earnings is $14.03 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for S&P Global’s Q2 2024 earnings at $3.49 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $14.00 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $15.80 EPS.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The business services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. S&P Global had a return on equity of 11.34% and a net margin of 21.02%. S&P Global’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.54 earnings per share.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on SPGI. Raymond James lifted their target price on S&P Global from $422.00 to $452.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $480.00 to $483.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of S&P Global from $460.00 to $442.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $480.00 target price on shares of S&P Global in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of S&P Global in a research note on Friday, February 9th. 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 MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $462.00.

S&P Global Stock Performance

SPGI opened at $413.37 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $132.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.23, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.15. S&P Global has a 1-year low of $338.92 and a 1-year high of $461.16. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $425.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $415.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. BCK Partners Inc. acquired a new position in shares of S&P Global in the first quarter valued at about $1,969,000. Markel Corp lifted its position in S&P Global by 0.8% during the first quarter. Markel Corp now owns 149,790 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $61,441,000 after purchasing an additional 1,250 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of S&P Global by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 2,239 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $919,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of S&P Global by 115.4% in the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,154 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $883,000 after buying an additional 1,154 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of S&P Global by 12.4% in the first quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 736 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $302,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at S&P Global

In other S&P Global news, CEO Douglas L. Peterson sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $424.74, for a total transaction of $2,548,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 162,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,032,992.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

S&P Global Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 27th were issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is an increase from S&P Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 26th. S&P Global’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.