Short sellers have largely stepped back from SPGI ahead of Tuesday's print. The stock trades at $436.79, up 6.2% over the past month despite recent analyst downgrades and lingering AI disruption concerns.
Short interest stands at 3.49 million shares as of April 23, just 1.15% of the float. That's down 21% over the past month and 2.1% lower week-over-week. Days to cover sits at a modest 1.7 days based on the latest FINRA data. Cost to borrow ticked up to 0.38% from 0.19% a week ago—a 104% jump—though utilization remains negligible at 0.07%, well off the 52-week high of 7.79%. Shares are easy to borrow and positioning is light.
The put/call ratio closed at 0.74 on April 24, just below the 20-day mean of 0.76 and running a -0.60 z-score. That sits comfortably inside the 52-week range of 0.54 to 1.24. Options traders are leaning slightly bullish but not aggressively so.
Analyst coverage lacks a formal consensus rating in the snapshot, but the mean price target of $534 implies 22% upside from current levels. Recent activity has been cautious. Wells Fargo's Jason Haas trimmed his target to $525 from $530 on April 13, maintaining Overweight. Morgan Stanley's Toni Kaplan cut to $556 from $580 on April 7, also holding Overweight. BMO Capital's Jeffrey Silber raised his Outperform target to $495 from $482 on March 17, the lone recent upgrade. A wave of post-earnings cuts in February followed disappointing Q4 results—UBS, Goldman, RBC, and Stifel all lowered targets materially.
Benzinga's bull case points to 26% year-over-year growth in average ETF assets under management and strong Ratings segment performance, with further margin expansion expected as integration wraps. The bear case notes Q4 results and 2026 guidance that fell short, triggering a 9.7% stock drop, plus concerns around AI disruption and weaker Market Intelligence margins.
The P/E ratio stands at 21.5x, up 1.3 turns over the past month. EV/EBITDA sits at 17.0x, down 0.45 turns in 30 days. Price-to-book edged up 0.14 to 4.02x. The stock ranks in the 47th percentile on earnings surprise and 48th on analyst recommendation differential. The dividend score hits the 88th percentile.
Insiders sold a net $11.1 million worth of shares over the past 90 days, led by $2.6 million from President/CEO Martina Cheung on February 24. Vanguard holds 10.3% of shares outstanding, adding 1.3 million shares last quarter. BlackRock owns 8.7%, up 505,600 shares. Australian Foundation Investment Company entered a new 4.3 million share position.
S&P Global last reported on February 13, with prior prints on February 10. The February earnings miss drove the sharp selloff and analyst target resets mentioned above. Investors will be looking for stabilization in Market Intelligence and clearer guidance on AI impacts.
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