Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Boosts Stake in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

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

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in SR. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Spire by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,168,221 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $418,390,000 after acquiring an additional 46,434 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Spire by 29.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,022,870 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $69,381,000 after acquiring an additional 229,662 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Spire by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,002,938 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $68,028,000 after acquiring an additional 15,835 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Spire by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 834,647 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $56,614,000 after acquiring an additional 28,715 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Spire by 15.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 778,442 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $52,802,000 after acquiring an additional 106,386 shares during the period. 87.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Spire Price Performance

Shares of SR traded down $0.41 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $74.61. 336,715 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 389,927. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $76.45 and a 200-day moving average of $71.94. Spire Inc. has a 52 week low of $57.77 and a 52 week high of $79.81. The stock has a market cap of $4.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.07, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.50.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $3.60 earnings per share 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 analysts' expectations of $1.15 billion. Spire had a return on equity of 7.88% and a net margin of 9.70%. The business'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 forecast that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.785 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 11th. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.21%. Spire's dividend payout ratio is presently 77.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of 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 raised shares of Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Spire from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $72.00 to $85.00 in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $77.40.

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.