Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Buys 4,574 Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) by 12.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 42,195 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 4,574 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned 0.07% of Spire worth $2,863,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of SR. Blair William & Co. IL boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its position 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 during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Spire by 87.2% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its stake in shares of Spire by 11.7% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,308 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $157,000 after acquiring an additional 241 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC lifted its holdings in Spire by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 3,406 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $230,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on shares of Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Spire from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday. 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. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $77.40.

Spire Price Performance

NYSE:SR traded down $0.41 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $74.61. The company 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $76.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $71.86. Spire Inc. has a one year low of $57.77 and a one year high of $79.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.40 billion, a PE ratio of 18.07, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $3.60 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.70 by ($0.10). Spire had a return on equity of 7.88% and a net margin of 9.70%. The firm had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.45 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 4.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 11th. Spire's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.