S&P Global Inc. SPGI

The business

Four businesses now, after the automotive data division was distributed to shareholders as a separate company. Ratings assigns letters to debt and gets paid when the debt is issued. Market Intelligence sells the data terminal and the company fundamentals. Energy publishes the price assessments that physical oil and gas contracts reference. Indices licenses the S&P 500 itself and collects a fee on every dollar benchmarked to it.

Indices is the best business in the building and the smallest. Ratings is the biggest and the most cyclical. Understanding this company is mostly understanding which of those two is doing the work in any given year.