Two Sigma Investments LP Has $2.98 Million Stock Holdings in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Two Sigma Investments LP cut its position in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) by 46.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 43,960 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 38,236 shares during the quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP owned 0.08% of Spire worth $2,982,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded Spire from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Spire from $85.00 to $83.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Mizuho raised their price target on Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their price target on Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Seven 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $77.20.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SR traded down $1.85 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $73.36. 685,475 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 400,696. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. Spire Inc. has a 12 month low of $57.77 and a 12 month high of $79.81. The company's 50 day moving average price is $75.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $72.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.33 billion, a PE ratio of 17.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last released 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 firm had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. Spire had a return on equity of 7.88% and a net margin of 9.70%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.45 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.785 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 11th. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.28%. Spire's payout ratio is currently 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.