S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) wants its data to remain essential as financial research moves into AI workflows. Adaptive Retrieval lets customers’ AI systems assemble licensed information through natural-language requests. The investment question is whether new data fees exceed delivery costs and subscription income they replace.
S&P Global Inc. looks fairly valued at a forward P/E of approximately 20x, compared with a trailing P/E of 25x. Trailing P/E uses historical earnings; forward P/E uses forecast earnings. Historical reported results include Mobility, while management’s outlook following its separation excludes it. Adjusted earnings also remove acquisition amortization, the largest second-quarter adjustment. These differences mean the gap cannot be treated as a pure measure of expected growth.
Operating momentum supports the multiple. Second-quarter pro forma adjusted EPS excluding Mobility rose 23%, helped by revenue growth, margin expansion, and repurchases. Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) is the closest ratings-and-analytics peer, although it lacks the same index and energy-data breadth. Broader fee sources strengthen business quality, while additional borrowing for buybacks increases financial risk.
Find SPGI among 10 Best Stocks to Buy for the Next 20 Years
Becoming an Essential Input to AI Workflows
For S&P Global Inc., the advantage rests on trustworthy information and established benchmarks, supporting its inclusion in Insider Monkey’s 7 Best Stocks to Buy with “Wide Moats”. AI simplifies finding public documents, but consistent definitions, connected datasets and traceable sources remain valuable when customers commit capital.
S&P Global Inc. already has evidence of adoption. Second-quarter usage of existing AI data interfaces increased more than fivefold sequentially, before Adaptive Retrieval’s launch. By July’s earnings update, more than 500 customers used AI connections. Annual contract value growth among Market Intelligence’s AI customers was 60% faster than the division’s average.
The challenge is turning AI productivity into revenue: customer savings must translate into supplier revenue. Management describes consumption pricing and charges for additional datasets. Automated research can therefore expand billable activity without adding human users.
S&P Global Inc. retains control over access. September’s management update described paywalls, audit rights and restrictions against model training. Customers were renewing platforms while requesting additional data. Those protections support licensing economics, although customers can negotiate broader access or compare providers.
Charging for Value When Access Becomes Easier
S&P Global Inc. faces a commercial balancing act. Pricing is moving toward usage, but negotiations with sophisticated customers are taking longer. If an enterprise replaces numerous desktop subscriptions with a cheaper centralized data contract, heavier consumption could accompany lower revenue. Growing total spending per customer, alongside renewals, would demonstrate that easier access is expanding the business.
Customers generally bear model-running costs inside their own AI environments; the company pays for AI embedded in its products. Data collection, quality control, and retrieval infrastructure still require investment. Pricing must cover those costs.
For S&P Global Inc., second-quarter Market Intelligence organic revenue grew 6% on the recast segment basis, while adjusted operating margin expanded 1.2 percentage points to 36%. The adjusted margin excludes acquisition amortization and other specified items. Subscription growth also benefited from upfront revenue on a ten-year renewal. The upfront benefit reinforces the need to separate AI adoption from material revenue growth.
S&P Global Inc. generated $2.25 billion of first-half company-defined non-GAAP free cash flow, including the then-owned Mobility business. This deducts capital expenditure and minority-owner distributions from operating cash flow. July’s capital plan included $2 billion of additional borrowing for repurchases. That makes the financing behind buybacks as important as recurring earnings: fewer shares can lift EPS while interest costs reduce cash available for investment.
Historical forward P/E was approximately 26x in December 2025 and 21x in June 2026. Both preceded the July 1 Mobility separation, which changed the earnings base and increased exposure to benchmark businesses. The lower multiple now accompanies a different business mix and increased borrowing plans, making 26x an unsuitable automatic fair-value target. Ratings still depends on debt issuance, while index fees respond to asset values. AI distribution does not remove those cycles.
Conclusion
S&P Global Inc. looks fairly valued at a forward P/E of 20x. Licensed, attributable data can become more valuable as AI expands financial analysis. Sustaining the valuation requires rising customer spending, continued Market Intelligence margin expansion, and cash generation after development and financing costs. Usage growth accompanied by weaker subscription income or margins would make the same multiple demanding.
While we acknowledge the risk and potential of SPGI as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than SPGI and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
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This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
