Dividend Power Score
A single, comprehensive score designed to measure the true strength of a company’s dividend.
This score combines three essential pillars of dividend quality:
Consistency – Measures how reliable the dividend has been over time, focusing on payment history, stability, and the absence of cuts or suspensions.
Payability – Assesses the company’s financial ability to sustain its dividend, taking into account cash flow, earnings coverage, balance sheet strength, and overall financial health.
Growth – Evaluates the long-term growth of both the dividend and the company’s share price, highlighting businesses that consistently increase payouts while creating shareholder value.
Higher scores identify companies that have historically delivered dependable income alongside sustained dividend growth and long-term capital appreciation.
Company Overview
S&P Global Inc. is a U.S.-based financial information and analytics company that operates primarily in the financial services, capital markets, commodities, and data analytics industries. The company provides benchmarks, credit ratings, market intelligence, indices, and analytical tools that are widely used by institutional investors, corporations, governments, and financial intermediaries. Its offerings are deeply embedded in global financial markets, supporting investment decision-making, risk management, regulatory compliance, and capital allocation.
The company’s primary revenue drivers are subscription-based data and analytics, transaction-linked credit ratings, and index licensing. A central strategic advantage is the critical role its products play in financial market infrastructure, particularly its credit ratings and benchmark indices, which benefit from high switching costs and strong brand recognition. S&P Global traces its origins to the early 20th century through the merger of Poor’s Publishing and Standard Statistics, later evolving into a diversified information services company following its separation from McGraw-Hill in 2012.
Business Operations
S&P Global operates through several core business segments: S&P Global Ratings, S&P Global Market Intelligence, S&P Dow Jones Indices, S&P Global Commodity Insights, and S&P Global Mobility. Revenue is generated through a mix of recurring subscriptions, licensing fees, and transaction-based services. S&P Global Ratings derives revenue largely from issuer-paid credit ratings, while S&P Dow Jones Indices earns fees from index-linked investment products and data licensing. The other segments focus on data subscriptions, analytics platforms, and research services.
The company has both domestic and international operations, with clients across banking, asset management, insurance, energy, automotive, and government sectors. Its assets include proprietary datasets, analytical models, and widely recognized benchmarks. Key subsidiaries include Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC and S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, and the company maintains strategic partnerships with exchanges, asset managers, and financial institutions to distribute its data and index products.
Strategic Position & Investments
S&P Global’s strategy emphasizes expanding high-margin, recurring-revenue businesses through data integration, technology investment, and targeted acquisitions. A major strategic milestone was the acquisition of IHS Markit in 2022, which significantly expanded the company’s data, analytics, and software capabilities, particularly in commodities, financial markets, and transportation. This acquisition reshaped the company’s portfolio and strengthened cross-selling opportunities across business lines.
The company continues to invest in cloud-based platforms, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to enhance data delivery and analytics. Emerging focus areas include energy transition data, climate and ESG analytics, private markets intelligence, and automotive data solutions. These initiatives are intended to align the company with long-term structural trends in global finance and industry.
Geographic Footprint
S&P Global is headquartered in the United States, with its principal executive offices in New York City. The company maintains a substantial global presence, operating in major financial and commercial centers across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. Its international operations contribute a significant portion of total revenue, reflecting the global nature of its client base.
The company’s products are used in more than 100 countries, and it maintains offices and analytical teams worldwide to support local market coverage and regulatory requirements. Through its indices, ratings, and data platforms, S&P Global exerts broad international influence across capital markets and commodity ecosystems.
Leadership & Governance
S&P Global is led by a senior management team with deep experience in financial services, data analytics, and global markets. The leadership emphasizes disciplined capital allocation, long-term value creation, and maintaining the integrity and independence of its analytical products, particularly in credit ratings and benchmarks.
Key executives include:
- Douglas L. Peterson – President and Chief Executive Officer
- Ewout L. Steenbergen – Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
- Martina L. Cheung – Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer
- Christopher G. Kellogg – Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer
- David M. Blitzer – Executive Vice President and General Counsel
The company operates under a governance framework designed to support regulatory compliance, data integrity, and transparency, consistent with its role as a provider of critical financial market infrastructure.