Zimmer Partners LP Invests $30.08 Million in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Zimmer Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 443,500 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $30,083,000. Zimmer Partners LP owned about 0.76% of Spire as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Spire by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd now owns 9,798 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $665,000 after buying an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 241 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 271 shares in the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on SR. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Spire from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their target price for the company from $72.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Spire currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $77.40.

Spire Price Performance

Shares of SR stock traded up $1.23 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $74.70. 385,455 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 394,895. The company has a market capitalization of $4.41 billion, a PE ratio of 18.09, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65. Spire Inc. has a 12-month low of $57.77 and a 12-month high of $79.81. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $75.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $72.54. The company has a current ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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). The business had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.15 billion. Spire had a return on equity of 7.88% and a net margin of 9.70%. The company's revenue was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.45 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.785 per share. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 11th. 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.