Northern Trust Corp Acquires 97,573 Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) by 13.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 845,612 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 97,573 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned 1.45% of Spire worth $57,358,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of SR. Blair William & Co. IL grew its stake in shares of Spire by 2.6% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL increased its holdings in shares of Spire by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 9,050 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $614,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Spire by 87.2% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its stake in Spire by 11.7% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC grew its position in Spire by 8.6% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded shares of Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Spire from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Seven 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $77.40.

Spire Price Performance

SR stock traded down $0.41 during trading on Friday, reaching $74.61. The company's stock had a trading volume of 336,715 shares, compared to its average volume of 389,405. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The company's fifty day moving average is $76.45 and its 200-day moving average is $71.86. The company has a market capitalization of $4.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65. Spire Inc. has a 1 year low of $57.77 and a 1 year high of $79.81.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $3.60 earnings per share (EPS) 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 business had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.15 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.45 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a $0.785 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 11th. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.21%. Spire's dividend 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.