6 Meridian lifted its stake in Spire Inc (NYSE:SR) by 4.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,955 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 289 shares during the quarter. 6 Meridian’s holdings in Spire were worth $579,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SR. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in Spire by 0.6% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,961,041 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $500,251,000 after purchasing an additional 33,304 shares in the last quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. raised its stake in Spire by 6.4% during the second quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 1,294,291 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $108,618,000 after purchasing an additional 78,296 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Spire by 91.9% during the second quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 943,689 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $79,194,000 after purchasing an additional 451,810 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Spire by 230.0% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 735,142 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $61,693,000 after purchasing an additional 512,346 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in Spire by 25.2% during the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 533,745 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $46,564,000 after purchasing an additional 107,465 shares in the last quarter. 80.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Spire from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Guggenheim cut shares of Spire from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $84.00 price objective on shares of Spire in a research report on Sunday, January 19th. Sidoti initiated coverage on shares of Spire in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “neutral” rating and a $89.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, ValuEngine cut shares of Spire from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Spire presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.50.
NYSE SR opened at $84.32 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $82.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $82.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market cap of $4.32 billion, a PE ratio of 23.89, a PEG ratio of 4.34 and a beta of 0.14. Spire Inc has a 12 month low of $74.00 and a 12 month high of $88.00.
Spire (NYSE:SR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 25th. The utilities provider reported ($0.54) EPS for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of ($0.52) by ($0.02). Spire had a return on equity of 7.64% and a net margin of 9.37%. The company had revenue of $225.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $243.88 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Spire Inc will post 3.78 earnings per share for the current year.
The firm also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a $0.6225 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 10th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.76%.
About Spire
Spire Inc, through 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 two segments, Gas Utility and Gas Marketing. It is also involved in marketing natural gas; and provision of energy services on non-regulated basis to on-system utility transportation customers, as well as to retail and wholesale customers.
