Cardinal Capital Management Grows Stock Holdings in Spire Inc. $SR

Cardinal Capital Management raised its holdings in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 40,713 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 756 shares during the quarter. Cardinal Capital Management’s holdings in Spire were worth $3,003,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Spire in the first quarter valued at $50,000. State of Wyoming purchased a new stake in shares of Spire in the fourth quarter worth about $52,000. Bayforest Capital Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Spire by 2,648.0% in the first quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 687 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 662 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Spire by 66.0% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 727 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 289 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its position in Spire by 75.2% in the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 785 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 337 shares in the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SR has been the topic of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus set a $81.00 price objective on Spire and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Spire from $85.00 to $83.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of Spire in a report on Wednesday, June 18th. Finally, Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $76.00 target price (down from $81.00) on shares of Spire in a research note on Friday, August 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.20.

Spire Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of NYSE:SR opened at $76.98 on Tuesday. Spire Inc. has a 1 year low of $61.56 and a 1 year high of $79.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.27. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $75.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $75.38.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.10. The business had revenue of $421.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $417.27 million. Spire had a net margin of 11.56% and a return on equity of 8.66%. The company’s revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.14) earnings per share. Spire has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.400-4.60 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, September 11th will be paid a $0.785 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 11th. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.1%. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 67.82%.

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.