Aquatic Capital Management LLC Makes New Investment in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Aquatic Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 10,922 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $741,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Spire in the 4th quarter worth about $42,432,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Spire by 29.0% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,022,870 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $69,381,000 after purchasing an additional 229,662 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Spire by 48.0% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 428,701 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $29,079,000 after purchasing an additional 138,971 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in shares of Spire during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,277,000. Finally, 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 valued at $52,802,000 after buying an additional 106,386 shares during the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho increased their target price on Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Spire from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Spire from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $72.00 to $85.00 in a report on Thursday, March 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Spire currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $77.40.

Spire Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of SR traded down $0.44 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $76.04. The company had a trading volume of 329,131 shares, compared to its average volume of 390,663. The company has a current ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The company has a market capitalization of $4.44 billion, a PE ratio of 18.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.56. Spire Inc. has a one year low of $57.77 and a one year high of $79.81. The company's fifty day moving average price is $76.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $71.60.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $3.60 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $3.70 by ($0.10). Spire had a return on equity of 7.88% and a net margin of 9.70%. The firm had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.45 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a $0.785 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 11th. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.13%. Spire's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 76.03%.

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.