Deutsche Bank AG Raises Holdings in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) by 21.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 89,355 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 15,769 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG owned approximately 0.15% of Spire worth $6,061,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in SR. EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Spire by 21.4% during the fourth quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,970 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $269,000 after purchasing an additional 701 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in Spire by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 8,151 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $553,000 after purchasing an additional 655 shares in the last quarter. Centiva Capital LP purchased a new position in Spire during the fourth quarter worth about $309,000. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP raised its holdings in Spire by 133.2% during the fourth quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP now owns 7,551 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $512,000 after purchasing an additional 4,313 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bridgefront Capital LLC purchased a new position in Spire during the fourth quarter worth about $254,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.36% of the company's stock.

Spire Price Performance

Spire stock traded up $1.23 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $74.70. The company had a trading volume of 385,455 shares, compared to its average volume of 394,268. Spire Inc. has a 1 year low of $57.77 and a 1 year high of $79.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The company has a market capitalization of $4.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $75.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $72.40.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $3.60 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.15 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.45 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.785 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 11th. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.20%. Spire's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 77.34%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SR has been the subject of several analyst reports. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Spire currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $77.40.

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.