Teacher Retirement System of Texas Takes $661,000 Position in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 8,450 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $661,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Spire by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 51,479 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $4,028,000 after buying an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in Spire by 27.4% in the 1st quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,938 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $230,000 after purchasing an additional 631 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Spire by 103.8% in the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 803 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 409 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its holdings in Spire by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 71,014 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $5,557,000 after purchasing an additional 794 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in Spire by 20.5% in the 1st quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,305 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $102,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on SR. Stifel Nicolaus set a $81.00 target price on Spire and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Spire from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "underperform" rating on shares of Spire in a report on Wednesday, June 18th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their target price on Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Spire currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $78.60.

Spire Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of SR stock traded up $0.37 on Friday, hitting $75.78. The company had a trading volume of 46,732 shares, compared to its average volume of 440,252. Spire Inc. has a twelve month low of $61.56 and a twelve month high of $79.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.34 and a current ratio of 0.43. The stock's 50-day moving average is $73.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $73.87. The firm has a market cap of $4.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.62.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $3.60 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.70 by ($0.10). Spire had a return on equity of 8.49% and a net margin of 10.22%. The business had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.45 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th were paid a $0.785 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 11th. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.14%. Spire's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.