Legal & General Group Plc Trims Holdings in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its holdings in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 351,306 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 13,710 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.60% of Spire worth $23,829,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Spire during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Spire by 87.2% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Spire in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in Spire in the 4th quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its holdings in Spire by 431.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 627 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.36% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on SR. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Spire from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $72.00 to $85.00 in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Spire from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $76.70.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of SR stock traded down $0.04 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $77.48. The stock had a trading volume of 365,261 shares, compared to its average volume of 388,356. Spire Inc. has a 1-year low of $57.77 and a 1-year high of $79.81. The firm has a market cap of $4.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.76, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The business's fifty day moving average is $75.93 and its 200-day moving average is $70.60.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.42 by ($0.08). Spire had a net margin of 9.70% and a return on equity of 7.88%. On average, research analysts forecast that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Spire Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were given a dividend of $0.785 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.05%. Spire's dividend payout ratio is currently 76.03%.

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.