Top 5 Stock Picks of William Von Mueffling’s Cantillon Capital Management

1. S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Cantillon Capital Management’s Stake Value: $719,580,000
Percentage of Cantillon Capital Management’s 13F Portfolio: 6%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 84

S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) provides credit ratings, benchmarking, statistics, and workflow solutions. On September 28, S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) announced a quarterly dividend of $0.85 per share, in line with the previous. S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) has increased its dividend every year for at least the last 49 years and has paid a dividend each year since 1937.

On August 29, Oppenheimer analyst Owen Lau retained an ‘Outperform’ rating on the stock while raising his price objective on S&P Global to $419 from $404. The analyst, who was becoming more positive about the firm, claimed that the shares of S&P Global had a solid start to Q3, rising 8.0% and beating the S&P 500 by 80 basis points.

In the second quarter of 2022, 84 hedge funds were bullish on S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI), down from 97 in the preceding quarter. Chris Hohn’s TCI Fund Management is a significant stakeholder of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI), with 8.77 million shares worth over $2.96 billion.

In its Q2 2022 investor letter, Baron Funds mentioned S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI). Here is what the fund said:

“Another example is S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI), the leading rating agency and data provider, whose stock declined 29.0% year-to-date and 17.5% during the second quarter as a result of growing investor concerns over the slowdown in debt issuance. While debt issuance volumes have seen a dramatic decline – the worst quarterly decline in a decade (down 41% year-over-year in the second quarter based on Goldman Sachs estimates), – and this led management to withdraw its 2022 guidance in early June, we do not believe it would result in a permanent loss of capital.

First, ratings represent only about 30% of S&P Global’s total revenues. Second, despite inherent volatility in quarterly or annual issuance, over the long-term issuance volumes follow the trends in levels of debt outstanding, which has compounded in the mid-single digits for many years. Lastly, we believe that S&P Global’s strong competitive positioning will enable it to continue benefiting from pricing power, while taking advantage of secular tailwinds such as the growth in passive and ESG investing, international expansion, and the growing demand for data analytics.”

You can also take a peek at Top 9 Stock Picks of Eduardo Costa’s Calixto Global Investors and Top 10 Stock Picks of Roberto Mignone’s Bridger Management.

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