By Todd Chanko

Presumably whenever a stockpicker -- whether investor or analyst -- chooses the next big idea, that choice isn't made cavalierly. Neither should the decision to bail if the stock moves in an unanticipated , and unwanted, direction. After much pondering, I recommend staying the course with S&P Global.

A few days after I had forecast in late January that its shares could rise 49% within 12 months, stocks of companies whose businesses were deemed irrelevant by AI were sold off indiscriminately -- particularly software and data providers. The tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 plunged 5.7% only a week after touching a then-2026 high of 26,022 on Jan. 28.

S&P Global -- a provider of credit ratings for debt, proprietary databases on commodities, energy, and technology, as well as many other investor tools -- wasn't immune. By Feb. 11, the stock pick had tumbled 26% post-publication to $390, leaving Barron's readers and investors puzzled and frustrated: "Been punished right out of [the] gate," one commenter wrote.

For those Barron's readers who invested in S&P Global before the post-publication selloff, it is a personal decision -- as all investment decisions are -- whether to cut their losses and redeploy remaining capital elsewhere. Other investors who have been waiting on the sidelines may want to consider that a company that continues to boost revenue, expand margins, and develop new businesses deserves some respect -- as well as a place in their portfolio.

S&P Global's stock has since rebounded 9.3% since its February sell-off lows -- ironically outpacing the 5% increase of its namesake benchmark the S&P 500 over the same period. It has room to rebound even further, and is a buy at these levels.

In fact, the reports of S&P Global's imminent demise by AI appear to be greatly exaggerated: Two months after investors suffered such hallucinations, the company reported a 14% year-over-year jump in adjusted diluted earnings per share to $4.97 in the first quarter. Revenue in the period grew 10% from a year earlier to $4.17 billion.

Many of the drivers that made this company a Barron's stock pick remain. When I presented S&P Global to readers on Jan. 28, it was off 3.3% from its Jan. 16 high, but still up 11.9% from October 2025 lows. Momentum seemed to be building. In late October, the company reported a 22% year-over-year jump in adjusted diluted earnings per share to $4.73 in its third quarter. S&P Global had also just announced a $1.8 billion acquisition of With Intelligence, a supplier of hard-to-find private market data. Operating margins expanded 300 basis points. Most companies' respective managements would envy such results.

The constitution of the company's revenue provides insights into the very diversity of business units which had inspired the stock pick. Forty-eight percent of the company's $4.17 billion first-quarter revenue was derived from subscriptions to its range of data and analytics services. Credit-ratings revenue grew 15% year over year in the first quarter to $978 million, representing 23% of total revenue, confirming S&P Global's February guidance that billed issuance, which drives credit ratings, would continue to expand.

"Debt issuance trends are strong and tracking 17% year over year in the second quarter," Brian McKnight, equity analyst for Tocqueville Asset Management, which holds 39,000 shares, worth about $16.5 million, tells Barron's. "I don't think it's unreasonable to expect SPGI to raise its full-year Ratings billed issuance growth this next quarter."

Moreover, S&P Global continues to generate its own AI-derived revenue. The company noted in its first-quarter 2026 presentation that over 300 customers were either in contract or in trial periods for its LLM-ready APIs.

Investors should always remember: Things change. S&P Global has seen a lot of that since Henry Varnum Poor -- the "P" in S&P -- first published his survey of U.S. railroads back in 1860.

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June 11, 2026 03:36 ET (07:36 GMT)

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