S&P Global Beats on Revenue but Misses EPS as Mobility Spinoff Reshapes the Business

S&P Global's second-quarter numbers on July 28 told two stories depending on which line you read. Revenue came in at $4.15 billion, beating the Wall Street consensus of $4.09 billion and growing 11% year over year. Adjusted earnings per share, however, landed at $4.08, according to the earnings call transcript reviewed by Investing.com, against a forecast of $4.75, a miss of roughly 14%. The stock dropped 5.2% in premarket trading.

The divergence matters because the earnings miss hit just as management was laying out an aggressive capital-return story. The company raised its 2026 share-buyback target by nearly $3 billion to more than $7 billion for the full year, which the earnings call transcript puts at more than 5% of current market capitalization. Investors clearly weighted the EPS shortfall more heavily than the buyback expansion, at least in the first hour of trading.

The two segments doing the heavy lifting were Ratings and Indices. Ratings revenue grew 17% to $1.34 billion, driven by a surge in rated issuance: according to Yahoo Finance's earnings call highlights, U.S. volumes rose 26%, European volumes 12%, and Asian volumes 49% year over year. Transaction revenues within Ratings climbed 25% to $746 million. The Indices division posted its 13th consecutive record revenue quarter, up 20% to $534 million, on asset-linked fees and exchange-traded derivatives volume.

Not every segment kept pace. The Energy division grew just 2%-3% to $568 million. Management said on the call, per the earnings transcript, that the Iran conflict tightened contract renewals and weighed on subscription activity. Market Intelligence, S&P Global's data and analytics arm, grew 6% to $1.29 billion but logged longer renewal cycles with larger clients, partly because of complex negotiations around AI licensing and intellectual-property protection, a recurring theme across data businesses this year.

A structural event adds noise to any year-over-year comparison. The Mobility division, which provides vehicle data and analytics, was spun off effective July 1, 2026, through a 1-for-1 share distribution to existing holders, according to a 10-Q filing reviewed by Stock Titan. Mobility's historical results will be reclassified as discontinued operations starting in Q3, which means the Q2 GAAP revenue figure of $4.15 billion still includes Mobility, while pro-forma revenue excluding that segment comes in at $3.68 billion. The company's own guidance is now framed on a pro-forma basis: organic constant-currency revenue growth of 6%-8% for the full year, with adjusted EPS of $17.50 to $17.75.

On the acquisition front, the company announced two deals the same day it reported earnings. The 10-Q discloses an agreement to acquire datacenterHawk, a provider of proprietary data on global data center supply, demand, pricing, and site selection, to be folded alongside 451 Research inside the Energy segment. The company also struck a deal for a majority stake in Agusto & Co., a Pan-African credit-rating agency operating in Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, and Ghana, which S&P Global said complements its Ratings segment's Africa growth strategy. Both transactions are expected to close in the second half of 2026, pending regulatory approval, and neither is expected to have a material impact on consolidated financials.

The adjusted operating margin expanded 200 basis points to 54.3%, supported by what management described as tightened spending in response to heightened macro and geopolitical volatility. Adjusted expenses rose only 6% against 11% revenue growth. Free cash flow for Q2 was $1.33 billion; the company guided for $2.9 billion to $3.1 billion in adjusted free cash flow in the second half, excluding Mobility.

The EPS miss will get the attention heading into the next quarter. Management's forward guidance on adjusted EPS of $17.50 to $17.75 for the full year implies a sharp acceleration in the back half, which is exactly the kind of hockey-stick math the market tends to treat with skepticism.

Sources cited:
- Investing.com earnings call transcript (https://www.investing.com/news/transcripts/earnings-call-transcript-sp-global-q2-2026-profit-miss-weighs-on-shares-93CH-4817134)
- Yahoo Finance / UK, S&P Global Q2 2026 Earnings Call Highlights (https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/p-global-inc-spgi-q2-210210563.html)
- Yahoo Finance, S&P Global Q2 Earnings Beat on Ratings & Indices Strength (Zacks) (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/p-global-spgi-q2-earnings-133007612.html)
- Stock Titan, S&P Global 10-Q filing summary (https://www.stocktitan.net/sec-filings/SPGI/10-q-s-p-global-inc-quarterly-earnings-report-d83a2b111356.html)
- SEC EDGAR, S&P Global Form 10-Q, FY2026 (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000723254/000072325426000025/ex992026-5x31.htm)
- Quartr, S&P Global Q2 2026 Earnings Summary (https://quartr.com/events/s-p-global-inc-spgi-q2-2026_3eENxWbt)