Nuveen Asset Management LLC Acquires 42,934 Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) by 5.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 836,521 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 42,934 shares during the quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC owned approximately 1.43% of Spire worth $56,741,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of SR. Blair William & Co. IL grew its stake in shares of Spire by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 6,027 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $409,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL grew its stake in shares of Spire by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 9,050 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $614,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its stake in shares of Spire by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,308 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $157,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Spire by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 3,406 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $230,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of Spire by 26.5% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,337 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $90,000 after purchasing an additional 280 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on SR. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Wall Street Zen raised Spire from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Spire from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $77.40.

Spire Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of NYSE SR traded up $1.23 during trading on Friday, hitting $74.70. 385,455 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 394,895. The business's fifty day moving average is $75.92 and its 200 day moving average is $72.54. Spire Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $57.77 and a fifty-two week high of $79.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65. 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 (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 9.70% and a return on equity of 7.88%. The company had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.45 EPS. Spire's revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 11th. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.20%. 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.