Captrust Financial Advisors Buys 139,815 Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Captrust Financial Advisors increased its stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) by 24.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 722,782 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 139,815 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors owned 1.24% of Spire worth $49,026,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Spire during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Spire by 87.2% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Spire in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Spire during the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC grew its holdings in shares of Spire by 431.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 627 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 509 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on SR shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Spire from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Spire from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $77.40.

Spire Price Performance

SR stock opened at $76.04 on Tuesday. 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. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $76.55 and a 200 day moving average of $71.68. The company has a market cap of $4.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.41, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65.

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 for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.70 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.15 billion. Spire had a net margin of 9.70% and a return on equity of 7.88%. Spire's revenue was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.45 earnings per share. On average, 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.785 per share. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 11th. Spire's payout ratio is 77.34%.

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.

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