Ameriprise Financial Inc. Sells 16,006 Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Ameriprise Financial Inc. decreased its holdings in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) by 3.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 410,913 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 16,006 shares during the quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned about 0.70% of Spire worth $27,875,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in Spire in the fourth quarter worth $1,030,000. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in shares of Spire by 48.2% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,307 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $156,000 after acquiring an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of Spire by 15.8% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Spire by 3.6% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Spire by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 173,374 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $11,760,000 after acquiring an additional 3,163 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.36% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SR has been the subject of several analyst reports. Mizuho raised their price target on Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Spire from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. StockNews.com raised Spire from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their target price on Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $77.40.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of Spire stock traded up $1.13 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $74.44. 278,688 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 390,916. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $76.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $72.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65. Spire Inc. has a one year low of $57.77 and a one year high of $79.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last released 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 firm had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.15 billion. Spire had a net margin of 9.70% and a return on equity of 7.88%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.45 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Investors 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 4.22%. Spire's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 77.34%.

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.