Blair William & Co. IL Raises Stock Holdings in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Blair William & Co. IL boosted its position in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,027 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Spire were worth $409,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Spire by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,385,452 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $93,244,000 after buying an additional 71,798 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Spire by 48.2% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $156,000 after acquiring an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Spire by 15.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 778,442 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $52,802,000 after acquiring an additional 106,386 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Spire by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 834,647 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $56,614,000 after acquiring an additional 28,715 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Spire by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 173,374 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,760,000 after purchasing an additional 3,163 shares during the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Spire Trading Down 4.0 %

Shares of Spire stock opened at $75.89 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $75.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $69.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.50. Spire Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $57.27 and a fifty-two week high of $79.81. The company has a market cap of $4.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.53.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by ($0.08). Spire had a return on equity of 7.88% and a net margin of 9.70%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were given a dividend of $0.785 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.14%. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 76.03%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on SR. Mizuho upped their target price on Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Bank of America began coverage on Spire in a report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Spire from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $72.00 to $85.00 in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their target price on shares of Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Spire presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $75.64.

About Spire

Spire Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the purchase, retail distribution, and sale of natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial, and other end-users of natural gas in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Gas Utility, Gas Marketing, and Midstream. It is also involved in the marketing of natural gas and related services; and transportation and storage of natural gas.