Financial Advocates Investment Management Purchases 120 Shares of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Financial Advocates Investment Management increased its position in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,882 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 120 shares during the period. Financial Advocates Investment Management’s holdings in S&P Global were worth $839,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of SPGI. Private Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of S&P Global in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Pineridge Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of S&P Global during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of S&P Global in the second quarter worth about $31,000. First Pacific Financial lifted its position in shares of S&P Global by 49.0% in the second quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 73 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Frazier Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of S&P Global in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Douglas L. Peterson sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 154,912 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $74,915,443.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Douglas L. Peterson sold 7,000 shares of S&P Global stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was 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 $74,915,443.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Robert P. Kelly sold 7,662 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $481.28, for a total value of $3,687,567.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 15,830 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,618,662.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 17,862 shares of company stock valued at $8,645,727. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

S&P Global Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of SPGI opened at $508.05 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $158.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.96, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a 50-day moving average of $477.22 and a 200 day moving average of $444.44. S&P Global Inc. has a 1-year low of $340.49 and a 1-year high of $511.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $4.04 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 the consensus estimate of $3.42 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.12 EPS. S&P Global’s quarterly revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that S&P Global Inc. will post 14.58 EPS for the current year.

S&P Global Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 0.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 27th. S&P Global’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.81%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays lifted their price objective on S&P Global from $520.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of S&P Global from $500.00 to $552.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of S&P Global from $532.00 to $537.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of S&P Global from $550.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on S&P Global from $535.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $530.75.

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.