S&P Capital IQ
A professional financial intelligence platform providing company, market, transaction, and analytical data.
Last updated August 26, 2026
AI crawler reads
No AI crawler has read this profile since Oct 28, 2026.
Overview
S&P Capital IQ is a financial intelligence and research platform operated within S&P Global Market Intelligence. It brings together structured company information, financial statements, market data, ownership records, transaction intelligence, industry research, and analytical tools in a workflow designed for professional users. Its principal audiences include investment banks, private-equity and venture-capital firms, asset managers, hedge funds, commercial banks, insurers, corporate development teams, investor-relations departments, consultants, and academic institutions. The platform’s central value proposition is the integration of information that is otherwise distributed across company filings, market feeds, research publications, transaction announcements, ownership records, and specialist datasets. Users can investigate public and private companies, compare operating and financial performance, identify potential acquisition or investment targets, construct peer groups, study precedent transactions, monitor ownership, and prepare valuation work. Its tools are commonly associated with financial modeling, screening, comparable-company analysis, merger and acquisition research, due diligence, portfolio monitoring, and corporate strategy. Capital IQ is part of the broader S&P Global Market Intelligence business, which provides multi-asset-class data, research, news, and analytics to institutional and corporate customers. The wider business also includes other information products and specialist brands. This relationship gives Capital IQ access to S&P Global’s broader data and research capabilities, while the Capital IQ identity remains focused on an integrated platform for company and market analysis. The product has historically been known for combining a searchable financial-information database with a browser-based workstation and supplementary data-delivery capabilities. Professional users can move from a company profile to financial statements, estimates, ownership information, credit-related material, industry context, or transaction records without changing research environments. The service is therefore positioned less as a consumer finance website and more as an institutional workflow product sold through enterprise subscriptions and related data services. S&P Global has also promoted Capital IQ Pro as a newer or expanded version of the platform. Capital IQ Pro is intended to provide a modern interface and broader access to market intelligence, research, screening, visualization, and analytical workflows. Product availability, data entitlements, and functionality may vary by customer agreement and region. The brand’s historical development is best understood in the context of S&P Global’s transformation from a diversified publishing and information company into a focused provider of financial information, analytics, benchmarks, and ratings. The parent company acquired Standard & Poor’s in 1966 and later assembled a range of financial-data and market-intelligence capabilities. S&P Global Market Intelligence now supplies information to financial institutions, companies, advisers, and universities, with Capital IQ serving as one of its best-known institutional research platforms. Capital IQ is not itself a separately listed company. Its corporate ownership, product strategy, and commercial operation sit within S&P Global. Public information identifies the platform and its parent organization, but does not establish a separately reported Capital IQ revenue figure, standalone listing, or independent headquarters. As a result, financial and executive information specific to the brand should not be inferred from S&P Global’s consolidated disclosures.
History
S&P Capital IQ is a product brand within S&P Global Market Intelligence rather than a separately incorporated public company. Its history is consequently linked to the development of S&P Global’s financial-information business. S&P Global traces part of its corporate lineage to the publishing businesses built by James H. McGraw and John A. Hill in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Those businesses eventually became McGraw–Hill, which expanded from publishing into information services and other activities. A major step toward the modern S&P Global portfolio came in 1966, when McGraw–Hill acquired Standard & Poor’s. Standard & Poor’s brought a recognized financial-information and credit-market identity into the group. Over subsequent decades, the parent company increasingly developed businesses serving investors, financial institutions, corporations, and other professional users. The group later separated or sold several non-core operations and increasingly concentrated on financial information, ratings, benchmarks, and market intelligence. In 2013, the corporate parent adopted the name McGraw Hill Financial after the separation of its education business. In 2016, following a shareholder vote, McGraw Hill Financial became S&P Global. The rebranding aligned the corporate identity more closely with the Standard & Poor’s name and its financial-market franchises. Capital IQ became associated with the group’s market-intelligence activities and was presented as a platform for company research, financial analysis, screening, valuation, transaction research, and investment workflows. Its database-oriented model addresses a recurring institutional need: combining public-company financials, private-company information, ownership data, market information, transaction records, estimates, research, and news in a single professional environment. The precise origins and founding date of the Capital IQ product are not established by the supplied reference material, so no independent founding year or founder is recorded here. Within S&P Global Market Intelligence, Capital IQ sits alongside a broader collection of data and analytics capabilities. The business serves institutional investors, investment and commercial banks, insurers, investment advisers, wealth managers, corporations, and universities. This parent-business context has allowed the Capital IQ offering to evolve from a company-research and analytics workstation into a broader platform with screening, visualization, modeling, workflow, and data-delivery functions. S&P Global has promoted Capital IQ Pro as an updated platform experience. The Pro branding signals a continued emphasis on professional research and analytical workflows, although individual features and datasets depend on subscription arrangements. The platform remains active and is marketed internationally through S&P Global’s financial-information operations. Because Capital IQ is a product brand, public corporate events involving S&P Global or S&P Global Market Intelligence should not automatically be treated as independent Capital IQ events. The brand has no separately disclosed stock ticker, standalone financial statements, or separately identified executive team in the supplied sources.
- 2020
S&P Global agrees to acquire IHS Markit
[1]The proposed combination expanded the parent group’s data and analytics portfolio and formed part of the strategic environment in which Capital IQ operates.
- 2016
McGraw Hill Financial becomes S&P Global
[1]The parent company completed its name change to S&P Global, strengthening the corporate connection between its identity and its financial-market businesses.
- 2013
Parent company adopts the McGraw Hill Financial name
[1]Following the separation of the education business, the parent company adopted McGraw Hill Financial as its corporate name.
- 1966
McGraw–Hill acquires Standard & Poor’s
[1]The acquisition brought Standard & Poor’s financial-market information and ratings business into the corporate lineage that later became S&P Global.
Products and positioning
Professional, integrated financial intelligence and analytical workflow platform for institutional investors and corporate finance users.
Financial intelligence platform
Capital IQ
The core Capital IQ service combines company profiles, financial statements, market information, ownership records, transaction data, research, screening, and analytical tools. It is designed for institutional users conducting company research, valuation, due diligence, investment analysis, corporate development, and portfolio work. Access and available datasets are generally governed by enterprise subscription arrangements.
Professional financial research and analytics platform
Capital IQ Pro
Capital IQ Pro is the branded professional platform experience associated with S&P Global Market Intelligence. It supports research and analysis through company and market data, screening, visualization, workflow features, and related intelligence. The product is intended for professional financial and corporate users, with functionality varying according to the customer’s license and selected data entitlements.
Brand decisions
2020
S&P Global announces the IHS Markit acquisitionM&ABackground
S&P Global sought to broaden its data and analytics portfolio through a combination with IHS Markit.
Action taken
The parent company agreed to acquire IHS Markit, a transaction intended to expand its information and analytics capabilities.
Aftermath
The transaction changed the scale and composition of the parent group in which S&P Capital IQ is operated.
Announced transaction value. (2020 announcement)
2016
Align the corporate identity with the S&P financial-information brandsStrategyBackground
The parent company had shifted toward financial information, analytics, ratings, and market intelligence after divesting or separating several non-core businesses.
Action taken
McGraw Hill Financial changed its name to S&P Global after a shareholder vote, creating a closer corporate association with the S&P family of financial-market brands, including Capital IQ.
Aftermath
Capital IQ continued to operate within S&P Global Market Intelligence rather than becoming a separately listed or independently reported company.
Recent events
S&P Global Market Intelligence launches AI-enabled document analytics on S&P Capital IQ Pro[3]
Reported:
S&P Global Market Intelligence launched an AI-enabled workflow tool on S&P Capital IQ Pro that lets users search textual content and extract relevant insights.
Sources3 sources
Cite this profile: Cite the canonical profile. /brand-wiki/s-and-p-capital-iq · Editorial policy · How profiles are compiled