Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Has $1.28 Million Holdings in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 1.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 16,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 300 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Spire were worth $1,275,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Spire by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,870 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $616,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of Spire by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 4,915 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $385,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL raised its holdings in shares of 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 raised its holdings in shares of Spire by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 9,050 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $614,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Spire by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,210 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $408,000 after acquiring an additional 214 shares during the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Spire Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of SR opened at $75.50 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 0.43 and a quick ratio of 0.34. Spire Inc. has a 1-year low of $61.56 and a 1-year high of $79.81. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.87.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $3.60 EPS 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 analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. Spire had a return on equity of 8.49% and a net margin of 10.22%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.45 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th were issued a $0.785 dividend. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.16%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 11th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 77.34%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Spire from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Guggenheim upped their price objective on Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Spire in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Spire from $85.00 to $83.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Spire from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Spire presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $78.60.

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.