S&P Global Q3 2026: EPS up 26% on a $200M sale gain; adjusted EPS +9% as Ratings stalled at +2%

S&P Global's third quarter, its first without the Mobility business it spun off on July 1, produced revenue of $3,678 million, up 6.8% from $3,443 million, and diluted earnings per share from continuing operations of $4.45, up 26% from $3.54. Most of the gap between those two growth rates comes from a $200 million gain on selling a business in the Energy division, plus a 4% smaller share count. On the company's own adjusted basis, which strips out that gain and acquisition-related amortization, EPS rose 9% to $4.58.

The quarter also changed which part of the company does the work. In the first half, Ratings, the credit-rating business that earns fees when companies sell bonds, drove the growth. In the third quarter Ratings revenue rose just 2%, and the growth came from Indices (+20%) and Market Intelligence (+7%). The company also opened a strategic review of Capital IQ, its big financial-data platform, that could end in selling or spinning it off.

Key numbers

All figures are from continuing operations, with prior-year periods restated without Mobility, so they do not line up with the Q2 figures we published before the spin-off.

Operating margin is the share of revenue left after the costs of running the business, before interest and tax. "Adjusted" figures are the company's own non-GAAP measures: they exclude acquisition-related amortization (an accounting charge that spreads the price of past purchases over time), gains and losses on selling businesses, severance and similar items. The release reports a 60-basis-point rise in adjusted margin (0.6 points); dividing the rounded dollar figures gives 53.5% and 52.8%.

Net income attributable to S&P Global including discontinued operations was $1,240 million, up 5%, because the Mobility line swung to a $58 million loss from a $98 million profit a year ago. The release does not explain the loss; Mobility left the company on the first day of the quarter.

Where the growth came from

Revenue rose $235 million. By division:

Prior-year adjusted margins are in brackets. Revenue figures are before $55 million of sales between divisions, which are removed from the group total. "Energy" is the former Commodity Insights division (Platts price assessments and energy data) under its new name.

Indices earns most of its money from asset-linked fees: a small percentage of the money held in ETFs and funds that track S&P indices, so revenue rises and falls with the value of those funds. Those fees rose 24% to $375 million, and fees from exchanges trading futures and options on S&P indices rose 19% to $92 million. Costs grew 12%, so the adjusted margin widened to 72%. Not all of that profit belongs to S&P Global shareholders: partners in the Indices joint venture take a share, and income attributable to these noncontrolling interests rose to $108 million from $89 million.

Market Intelligence grew revenue 7%, both as reported and on an organic constant-currency basis (excluding acquisitions, disposals and exchange-rate moves). Subscription revenue rose 6% to $1,049 million and recurring variable revenue, fees that scale with client activity such as trades processed, rose 11% to $176 million. Adjusted costs rose 5%, slower than revenue, so adjusted operating profit rose 10%.

Energy grew revenue 6%, organic as well, with subscriptions up 5% to $583 million. Its reported operating profit of $469 million (up 88%) includes the $200 million gain; on an adjusted basis profit rose 10% to $310 million. The release does not name the business sold. The only Energy sale the company had disclosed by Q2 was the planned sale of its geoscience and petroleum-engineering software to SLB.

Ratings is the weak line. Transaction revenue, earned when a borrower actually sells a new rated bond or loan, rose 1% to $677 million. Non-transaction revenue (annual fees for monitoring existing ratings, relationship pricing programs, and research at the Crisil subsidiary) rose 4% to $594 million. Organic constant-currency growth was 3%. Adjusted costs rose 7%, so adjusted operating profit was flat and the margin slipped to 66% from 67%. Reported operating profit rose 2%, helped by $12 million of legal costs in the year-ago quarter that did not recur.

The release gives no billed-issuance volumes and no management explanation for the Ratings slowdown. Those normally appear in the 10-Q, which had not been filed when this was written. This analysis is based on the earnings release (Exhibit 99.1 to the 8-K filed October 27, 2026). Year to date, Ratings revenue is still up 11%, so the slowdown is one quarter so far. The bond markets that drive it are outside the company's control.

What the headline numbers hide

• A sale gain did most of the GAAP EPS growth. The $200 million pretax gain in Energy was $136 million after tax, about $0.47 a share. Excluding it, GAAP EPS would be roughly $3.98, up about 12% rather than 26%. The company's adjusted EPS, which also adds back acquisition amortization and the prior year's costs, rose 9%.
• Buybacks did about half of the adjusted EPS growth. Adjusted net income rose 4% to $1,337 million; adjusted EPS rose 9% because diluted shares fell 4.2% to 291.6 million. The company repurchased $2.6 billion of stock in the quarter, more than $4 billion so far this year, and still expects more than $7 billion for 2026. That matches the cash flow statement: $4,100 million spent over nine months against $1,500 million in the first half. Dividends paid in the quarter were $281 million ($856 million for nine months less $575 million in the first half, per the Q2 10-Q).
• A higher tax rate offset operating growth. Adjusted pretax income rose 8% to $1,880 million, but the adjusted tax rate rose to 23.1% from 21.2%. That is why adjusted net income grew only 4%. The GAAP rate was 24.9% against 21.1% and included $15 million of tax tied to steps taken before the Mobility spin-off.
• The year-ago figure included an earnings stream that is gone. In Q3 2025 adjusted operating profit included $21 million of equity income from OSTTRA, a business S&P Global part-owned; this year it is zero. Excluding it, adjusted operating margin rose to 54% from 52%, slightly better than the headline adjusted figure.
• Costs are slowing. Adjusted expenses rose 5% against 7% revenue growth, and corporate overhead fell to $36 million from $83 million. Part of that fall is fewer one-off charges: a year ago that line held $9 million of executive-transition costs and $5 million of severance.
• Cash backs the earnings. Operating cash flow from continuing operations for nine months was $3,661 million, up 10%, against income from continuing operations of $4,150 million. That income includes $386 million of sale gains, which bring in cash through investing activities rather than operating cash flow. Excluding the gains, cash conversion is about 97%. Free cash flow was $3,299 million, up 12%.
• Guidance was raised on revenue, cut on GAAP EPS. Full-year adjusted EPS guidance rose to $17.70–$17.95 from $17.50–$17.75, but GAAP EPS guidance fell to $16.25–$16.50 from $16.35–$16.60 "primarily due to adjustments to expected gain on dispositions". In other words, the company now expects less gain on sale income for the year than it did in July.

On balance the quarter is flattered: GAAP EPS rose 26%, but adjusted EPS rose 9%, and roughly half of that 9% came from the smaller share count rather than from higher profit.

Takeaway: S&P Global's growth did not come from bond issuance this quarter. Ratings, the division that drove the first half, grew 2%. Indices and Market Intelligence generated $172 million of the $235 million revenue increase, and Indices alone generated half of the adjusted profit growth. Indices fees rise with equity-fund assets, so the company is still tied to markets. The exposure has moved from the bond market to the stock market.

Did last time's read hold up?

Our Q2 report warned that the Ratings surge rested partly on an easy comparison with a weak second quarter of 2025, and on bond sales by borrowers reacting to conditions S&P Global does not control. It named non-transaction revenue (then +8%) as the better guide to the segment's run rate. That caution was justified: transaction revenue growth fell from 25% in Q2 to 1% in Q3. Even non-transaction growth slowed, to 4%. The other call, that margins would hold or improve once separation costs rolled off, also held: adjusted operating margin rose 0.6 points and GAAP costs carried far fewer one-off charges than a year ago. The Q2 figures included Mobility and the Q3 figures do not, so these growth rates compare the trend rather than identical businesses.

Outlook

Management raised its 2026 revenue growth guidance to 7.4%–8.4% from 5.9%–7.9%, and organic constant-currency growth to 7.5%–8.5% from 6.0%–8.0%, crediting higher expected revenue from Ratings and Indices. Adjusted operating margin is now expected to expand 75–100 basis points (previously 35–60), with adjusted EPS of $17.70–$17.95. Against nine-month adjusted EPS of $13.86, that implies $3.84–$4.09 for the fourth quarter, compared with $4.58 in the third. The release does not say whether the fourth quarter is seasonally weaker. The guidance assumes Market Intelligence contributes for the full year in its current form.

The strategic review covers Capital IQ and associated data businesses, the majority of Kensho Data & Platforms within Market Intelligence. S&P Global plans to keep RatingsDirect, RatingsXpress and Enterprise Solutions. The company gives no timetable and says the review may not lead to any transaction. If it does, the slower-growing data business would leave and the remaining company would depend even more on ratings and index fees.

My read: two of the three growth drivers are cyclical. Indices depends on ETF asset levels and Ratings on bond issuance. Management credits part of the higher revenue guidance to Ratings, yet Ratings grew 2% this quarter, so the forecast needs bond issuance to stay healthy through year-end. The 10-Q's billed-issuance figures will show how much of Q3's slowdown came from volumes, and the fourth-quarter Ratings line will show whether the guidance was right. With buybacks of at least $2.9 billion still to come this year to reach more than $7 billion, share-count reduction will keep adding several points to EPS growth.