3,802 Shares in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Acquired by Capstone Investment Advisors LLC

Capstone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 3,802 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $258,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Blair William & Co. IL grew its holdings in Spire by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 6,027 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $409,000 after buying an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Spire by 87.2% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its stake in Spire by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,308 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $157,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 271 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim upped their target price 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Spire from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $72.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. StockNews.com cut Spire from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company increased 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $77.40.

Spire Stock Up 0.9 %

NYSE:SR opened at $76.75 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $4.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65. Spire Inc. has a twelve month low of $57.77 and a twelve month high of $80.59. The company has a current ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $76.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $71.71.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $3.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 9.70% and a return on equity of 7.88%. Spire’s quarterly revenue was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.45 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.785 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 11th. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.09%. Spire’s payout ratio is currently 77.34%.

About Spire

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.