Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) by 13.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 845,612 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 97,573 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned approximately 1.45% of Spire worth $57,358,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Spire during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $42,432,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Spire by 29.0% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,022,870 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $69,381,000 after purchasing an additional 229,662 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Spire by 48.0% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 428,701 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $29,079,000 after purchasing an additional 138,971 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Spire during the fourth quarter worth $8,277,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Spire by 15.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 778,442 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $52,802,000 after buying an additional 106,386 shares during the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of brokerages recently weighed in on SR. Guggenheim boosted 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. Mizuho upped their target price on Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. StockNews.com upgraded Spire from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $77.40.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Spire
Spire Stock Down 2.1%
Spire stock traded down $1.55 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $73.12. 25,110 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 388,498. The stock has a market cap of $4.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $76.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $71.94. Spire Inc. has a 1-year low of $57.77 and a 1-year high of $79.81. 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 earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $3.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $3.70 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. Spire had a net margin of 9.70% and a return on equity of 7.88%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.45 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Spire Announces Dividend
The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 11th. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.29%. Spire's dividend payout ratio is currently 77.34%.
About Spire
(
Free Report)
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.
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