S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) reported first-quarter 2026 results showing revenue growth, margin expansion, and higher earnings per share, while executives emphasized heightened macro uncertainty tied to geopolitical disruptions and energy-market volatility. Management also highlighted accelerating customer adoption of the company’s AI-enabled products and data delivery methods, alongside continued preparation for the planned mid-2026 separation of its Mobility business.
Quarterly performance and capital return
President and CEO Martina Cheung said the company was “pleased with the results” in the first quarter, with revenue up 10% year-over-year, or 9% on an organic constant-currency basis. Subscription product revenue increased 6%, while market-driven businesses such as Ratings and Indices showed what Cheung described as “remarkable resilience.”
Chief Financial Officer Eric Aboaf said adjusted expenses rose 8%, but the company “reacted quickly” as volatility and macro risk rose late in February and continued through March, managing discretionary spending to produce stronger-than-anticipated margins “in every division.” He reported consolidated adjusted operating margin expanded 100 basis points year-over-year to 51.8%, with adjusted operating profit up 12%. Excluding Osttra from the prior-year period, Aboaf said margin expansion would have been 160 basis points.
Macro backdrop: conflict-driven volatility and issuance trends
Cheung said macro uncertainty had increased in recent months, citing supply-chain disruptions and “the conflict in Iran” as a shock to energy markets that pushed energy and commodity prices higher and elevated volatility. She also said private credit faced “increased scrutiny, wider spreads, and elevated redemptions,” though she reiterated expectations for “strong growth in private markets over the medium term,” which she said would require more transparency through data and benchmarks.
Despite volatility, Cheung said issuance was resilient in the quarter. She reported build issuance increased 14% year-over-year, driven primarily by investment-grade strength that benefited from hyperscaler investments in AI infrastructure, as well as several large M&A transactions. That growth was partly offset by a high-teens decline in bank loan volumes, which she attributed to lapping a difficult prior-year comparison. Cheung said spreads widened slightly amid uncertainty but remained below historical norms.
Aboaf said the company’s guidance framework assumes the Iran conflict stabilizes by the end of the second quarter, while acknowledging the risk of a protracted conflict. He outlined macro assumptions underpinning guidance, including 3.2% global GDP growth, 2.2% U.S. growth, and 3.2% U.S. CPI growth, and said the conflict represented “the largest energy shock since the 1970s,” potentially creating both direct headwinds for Energy and indirect headwinds for market-sensitive businesses depending on equity and credit market conditions.
Division highlights: Ratings strength, Indices growth, and Energy uncertainty
In Market Intelligence, Aboaf reported revenue increased 8% (6% organic constant-currency), with subscription revenue up 6% on both a reported and organic basis, driven by “strong renewals and net sales across the franchise.” He noted a 50-basis-point headwind from revenue-recognition timing that he expects to reverse in the back half of the year. One-time and volume-driven revenue grew 18% in aggregate, aided by the With Intelligence acquisition and a rebound in volume-driven activity. Market Intelligence delivered 80 basis points of operating margin expansion to 33.6%.
Ratings revenue rose 13%, which Aboaf said exceeded internal expectations. Transactional revenue grew 15% on strength in investment grade, supported by large hyperscaler and M&A transactions. He said transaction revenue from government, high yield, and structured finance also increased, but weakness in bank loans offset some of that strength due to a high-teens decline in bank-loan build issuance. Non-transactional revenue grew 11%, driven primarily by higher annual fees and CRISIL revenue. Ratings posted 160 basis points of margin expansion to 67.8%.
Energy revenue increased 7% in the quarter, but Aboaf said the Iran conflict brought “considerable volatility and uncertainty” that persisted into the second quarter. He said some Middle East customers experienced direct facility impacts and others faced supply-chain or distribution disruptions. While events revenue and transactional activity increased, the conflict “weighed on other parts” including subscription revenue, and sanctions remained a headwind. He said Advisory and transactional services revenue rose 15% as CERAWeek delivered record attendance and revenue, and Global Trading Services revenue grew close to 30% amid volatility. Upstream data and insights revenue declined 5% due to the absence of a prior-year one-time fee. Energy margins expanded 120 basis points to 49.3%.
In S&P Dow Jones Indices, revenue rose 17% with double-digit growth across business lines. Asset-linked fees increased 18%, driven by equity market appreciation and net inflows, though Aboaf noted a mix shift toward lower-priced indices such as the S&P 500 during volatile periods led to a modest decline in average realized price year-over-year. Exchange-traded derivatives revenue increased 18%, driven by strong volumes, particularly in SPX. Data and custom subscriptions increased 12%, with Aboaf citing new-business growth in end-of-day contracts. Indices operating margin expanded 90 basis points to 73.8%.
AI adoption, data distribution, and product development
Cheung spent significant time describing how customers are using S&P Global’s data through both its own platforms and third-party AI ecosystems. She said more than a third of Capital IQ Pro users engage with AI features such as ChatIQ and Document Intelligence. She also said nearly 150 customers across Market Intelligence and Energy were interacting with S&P Global data through AI applications like Claude and Copilot as of March, and that figure has now risen to more than 300 customers under contract or in trial for Kensho “LLM-ready APIs.”
Cheung reported rapid growth in API consumption: customer API call volume was “more than 5 times” what the company saw one quarter earlier, with volumes doubling month-over-month from February to March. She said ACV growth among customers who use AI solutions is outpacing others, citing that growth in Market Intelligence is “30% higher” among AI customers and growth among AI customers in Energy is “double the growth rate” of other customers.
Responding to analyst questions about monetization and partnerships with large AI players, Cheung said the company intends to build MCP applications and highlighted the “S&P Global Plugin,” described as a series of agents that help AI agents perform tasks using licensed, AI-ready data. She offered an example of a buy-side client that chose S&P Global’s data and plugin over an existing provider despite being “about 20% more expensive.” Cheung also said two financial clients opted to renew with AI-ready data access and were willing to pay “in the range of 35%-45%” more on the renewal increase for that access, describing these as “early days” signals of enterprise-value-based monetization.
Cheung also detailed developments in Energy, including the unveiling of “CERA Titan,” an AI-native upstream data and insights platform. She said customer feedback from demos at CERAWeek was “overwhelmingly positive,” leading to increased leads and pipeline, and that one strategic customer renewal was closed with a “meaningful increase in contract value” after viewing the platform. Later, she confirmed CERA Titan will use a subscription-based revenue model.
Mobility separation timeline, guidance, and repurchases
Aboaf said the company remains on track for the planned mid-2026 spin of Mobility, with a Form 10 expected to be filed publicly this quarter and a Mobility Investor Day scheduled for May 12 in New York. He also said the company plans to launch a public debt offering for Mobility this quarter targeting an investment-grade rating. Until separation is complete, S&P Global will continue to fully consolidate Mobility in financial statements and 2026 guidance; after the spin, the company plans to provide recast financials excluding Mobility and updated 2026 guidance excluding Mobility.
On outlook, Aboaf said S&P Global reiterated its full-year enterprise guidance for organic constant-currency revenue growth of 6% to 8% and margin expansion of 50 to 75 basis points in 2026 (excluding Osttra). Division guidance was unchanged except for Energy, where expected organic constant-currency revenue growth was lowered by 1 percentage point to 4.5% to 6% due to the external environment and the Iran conflict’s impact on demand and supply.
Aboaf also updated capital-return expectations. With a target gross leverage range of 2 to 2.5 times trailing 12-month EBITDA, he said leverage is expected to rise modestly due to the loss of Mobility EBITDA. He also said Mobility is expected to issue about $2 billion of debt in conjunction with the spin, with proceeds funding a cash payment to S&P Global that could support incremental share repurchases and some debt reduction. Given the company’s view that the share price presents “an attractive opportunity,” Aboaf said S&P Global plans to increase repurchases from an expected 85% of adjusted free cash flow to “at least 100%,” or roughly $4.5 billion for the year.
About S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI)
S&P Global is a leading provider of financial information, analytics and benchmark indices that serve investors, issuers, corporations and public institutions worldwide. The company operates through well-known businesses that include credit ratings, market intelligence and index licensing, as well as commodity and energy information services. Its products and services are used to assess creditworthiness, inform investment decisions, construct and track benchmark portfolios, and support risk and commodity market analysis.
S&P Global Ratings provides independent credit ratings, research and data used by fixed income investors and capital market participants to evaluate issuer and transaction risk.
