Item 5. Market for the Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Price Range of Common Stock

On January 26, 2018, the closing price of our common stock was $183.80 per share as reported on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the ticker symbol “SPGI”. S&P Global Inc. began trading under its new ticker symbol "SPGI" on April 28, 2016. Previously, the Company's common stock traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "MHFI". The approximate number of record holders of our common stock as of January 26, 2018 was 3,093. The high and low sales prices of S&P Global Inc.'s common stock on the NYSE for the past two fiscal years are as follows:

The performance graph below compares our cumulative total shareholder return during the previous five years with a performance indicator of the overall market (i.e., S&P 500), and our peer group. The peer group consists of the following companies: Thomson Reuters Corporation, Moody’s Corporation, CME Group Inc., MSCI Inc., FactSet Research Systems Inc. and IHS Markit Ltd. Returns assume $100 invested on December 31, 2012 and total return includes reinvestment of dividends through December 31, 2017.

Dividends

We expect to continue our policy of paying regular cash dividends, although there is no assurance as to future dividend payments because they depend on future earnings, capital requirements and our financial condition. Regular quarterly dividends per share of our common stock for 2017 and 2016 were as follows:

On February 2, 2018, the Board of Directors approved an increase in the quarterly common stock dividend from $0.41 per share to $0.50 per share.

Transfer Agent and Registrar for Common Stock

Computershare is the transfer agent for S&P Global. Computershare maintains the records for the Company's registered shareholders and can assist with a variety of shareholder related services.

Shareholder correspondence should be mailed to:

Computershare

P.O. Box 505000

Louisville, KY 40233

Overnight correspondence should be mailed to:

Computershare

462 South 4th Street, Suite 1600

Louisville, KY 40202

Visit the Investor Center™ website to view and manage shareholder account online: www.computershare.com/investor

For shareholder assistance:

Repurchase of Equity Securities

On December 4, 2013, the Board of Directors approved a share repurchase program authorizing the purchase of up to 50 million shares, which was approximately 18% of the Company's outstanding shares at that time. During the fourth quarter of 2017, we repurchased 1.4 million shares which included 0.5 million shares received from the conclusion of our accelerated share repurchase ("ASR") agreement that we entered into on August 1, 2017. Further discussion relating to our ASR agreement can be found in Note 9 - Equity. As of December 31, 2017, 19 million shares remained under our current repurchase program.

Repurchased shares may be used for general corporate purposes, including the issuance of shares for stock compensation plans and to offset the dilutive effect of the exercise of employee stock options. Our current repurchase program has no expiration date and purchases under this program may be made from time to time on the open market and in private transactions, depending on market conditions.

The following table provides information on our purchases of our outstanding common stock during the fourth quarter of 2017 pursuant to our current share repurchase program (column c). In addition to these purchases, the number of shares in column (a) include shares of common stock that are tendered to us to satisfy our employees’ tax withholding obligations in connection with the vesting of awards of restricted shares (we repurchase such shares based on their fair market value on the vesting date).

There were no other share repurchases during the quarter outside the repurchases noted below.

1 Includes 0.5 million shares received from the conclusion of our ASR agreement that we entered into on August 1, 2017.

Equity Compensation Plan

For information on securities authorized under our equity compensation plans, see Item 12, Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters.