Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. Raises Stock Position in Spire Inc. $SR

Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its holdings in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 32.8% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,030,625 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 254,285 shares during the period. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Spire were worth $75,225,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. CWM LLC raised its position in Spire by 19.7% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 19,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,440,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Spire by 43.4% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 234,931 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,383,000 after purchasing an additional 71,094 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc raised its holdings in Spire by 71.9% during the 2nd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 8,895 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $649,000 after buying an additional 3,721 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. raised its holdings in Spire by 7.7% during the 1st quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 105,569 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,261,000 after buying an additional 7,543 shares during the period. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Spire by 75.6% in the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 49,923 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,906,000 after buying an additional 21,495 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of SR stock opened at $87.06 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $5.14 billion, a PE ratio of 18.80, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.72. Spire Inc. has a 12-month low of $64.44 and a 12-month high of $91.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $83.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $77.77.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 14th. The utilities provider reported ($0.47) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.46) by ($0.01). Spire had a return on equity of 8.66% and a net margin of 11.56%.The firm had revenue of $334.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $439.56 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.54) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Spire has set its FY 2027 guidance at 5.650-5.850 EPS. FY 2026 guidance at 5.250-5.450 EPS. Analysts expect that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 11th will be issued a $0.825 dividend. This is an increase from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.79. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 11th. This represents a $3.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. Spire’s payout ratio is currently 67.82%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on SR. BTIG Research raised shares of Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Bank of America upgraded shares of Spire from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $76.00 to $89.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Spire from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Spire in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $91.00 target price on Spire and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Spire presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.08.

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.