AQR Capital Management LLC Decreases Stake in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

AQR Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 163,837 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 5,308 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.28% of Spire worth $11,087,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Blair William & Co. IL raised its stake in Spire by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 6,027 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $409,000 after acquiring an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL increased its holdings in shares of Spire by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 9,050 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $614,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Spire by 87.2% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 204 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in Spire by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,308 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $157,000 after acquiring an additional 241 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC lifted its holdings in Spire by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 3,406 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $230,000 after acquiring an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Spire from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday. Guggenheim raised their target price on Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Mizuho upped their price target on Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Spire from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $72.00 to $85.00 in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $77.40.

Spire Price Performance

Shares of SR stock traded down $0.41 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $74.61. 336,715 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 389,356. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $76.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $71.80. The firm has a market cap of $4.40 billion, a PE ratio of 18.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.37. Spire Inc. has a 1-year low of $57.77 and a 1-year high of $79.81.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $3.60 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.70 by ($0.10). Spire had a return on equity of 7.88% and a net margin of 9.70%. The company had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.45 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $0.785 per share. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 11th. Spire's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 77.34%.

Spire Profile

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.