Capstone Investment Advisors LLC Takes Position in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Capstone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 3,802 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $258,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SR. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Spire by 127.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 109,372 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $7,360,000 after purchasing an additional 61,357 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Spire by 18.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 289,730 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $19,496,000 after buying an additional 44,506 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew 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 worth $30,000 after buying an additional 204 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC grew its position in shares of Spire by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 6,509 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $441,000 after buying an additional 841 shares during the period. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Spire by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 24,915 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,690,000 after acquiring an additional 1,097 shares during the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on shares of Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Spire from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $72.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $77.40.

Spire Stock Down 2.9%

NYSE SR traded down $2.18 during trading on Monday, hitting $72.48. The stock had a trading volume of 60,852 shares, compared to its average volume of 388,649. 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 12 month low of $57.77 and a 12 month high of $79.81. The company has a market capitalization of $4.28 billion, a PE ratio of 17.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65. The company's 50-day moving average price is $76.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $71.94.

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

Spire Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 11th. Spire's dividend payout ratio is currently 77.34%.

Spire Company 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.