Raymond James Financial Inc. Purchases New Position in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 47,154 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $3,198,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned about 0.08% of Spire as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Spire by 127.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 109,372 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $7,360,000 after buying an additional 61,357 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in Spire in the third quarter worth approximately $994,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Spire by 18.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 289,730 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $19,496,000 after acquiring an additional 44,506 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Spire by 87.2% in 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. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in Spire by 14.8% in the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 6,509 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $441,000 after acquiring an additional 841 shares during the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on SR. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Spire from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Thursday. Guggenheim lifted their target price on Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $77.40.

Spire Stock Down 0.9 %

Spire stock traded down $0.66 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $75.63. The company's stock had a trading volume of 45,248 shares, compared to its average volume of 390,397. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.37. Spire Inc. has a 52-week low of $57.77 and a 52-week high of $79.81. The firm's 50 day moving average is $76.55 and its 200 day moving average is $71.44. The company has a market cap of $4.41 billion, a PE ratio of 18.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.56.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $1.05 billion during 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%. Spire's revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.45 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a $0.785 dividend. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.15%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 11th. Spire's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 76.03%.

Spire 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.