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Reasons to Hold S&P Global (SPGI) Stock in Your Portfolio Now

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S&P Global (SPGI - Free Report) shares have had an impressive run over the past year. The stock has gained 14.6% compared with the 12.8% rally of the industry it belongs to.

The company’s revenues for 2024 and 2025 are expected to increase 7.7% and 7.8%, respectively, year over year. Earnings are anticipated to grow 12.4% in 2024 and 12.7% in 2025. The company has an expected long-term (three to five years) earnings per share growth rate of 12.8%.

Factors That Auger Well

S&P Global is well-poised to benefit from the growing demand for business information services. The consistent increase in the volume of data from private and government organizations has enhanced the demand for improved enterprise-wide financial performance visibility. Growth of the market will be driven by rising demand for news, information and analytics solutions. The company will continue to innovate and invest in its leading data technology and workflow tools to drive growth.

Strategic acquisitions enable the company to drive growth. It aims to innovate, expand content and introduce products. In 2023, Market Scan Information Systems, Inc. and ChartIQ were acquired, which assisted the company in enhancing mobility services and strengthening S&P Global Market Intelligence. Shades of Green business was acquired in 2022, which improved second-party opinions. The merger with IHS Markit, completed in 2022, improved data and analytics offerings.

S&P Global paid out $1.1 billion, $1 billion and $743 million as dividends in 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively. The company made repurchases worth $3.3 billion and $12 billion in 2023 and 2022, respectively. These initiatives not only instill investors’ confidence but also positively impact the bottom line.

SPGI’s current ratio (a measure of liquidity) at the end of first-quarter 2024 was 0.92, higher than the previous quarter’s 0.84 and the year-ago quarter’s 0.91. An increasing current ratio is desirable as it indicates that the company may not have problems meeting its short-term obligations. An increasing current ratio bodes well.

Risk

S&P Global witnesses increased expensesdue to investments in ongoing productivity programs, higher cost of compensation costs by investments in growth initiatives, completion of acquisitions, and raised incentive costs. In 2023, 2022 and 2021, total expenses increased 3.4%, 99.7% and 6.4% year over year, respectively. The bottom line is anticipated to be under pressure in the future.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

S&P Global currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A couple of better-ranked stocks from the broader Zacks Business Services sector are Sprinklr (CXM - Free Report) andShift4 Payments (FOUR - Free Report) .

Sprinklr presently has a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

CXM has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 30%. It delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 58.9%, on average.

Shift4 Payments currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2. It has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 26%.

FOUR delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 12.3%, on average.


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