Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Sells 390 Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC cut its holdings in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 8.5% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,195 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 390 shares during the quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in Spire were worth $328,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in SR. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its position in shares of Spire by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 12,155 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $824,000 after acquiring an additional 466 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in Spire by 26.5% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,337 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $90,000 after purchasing an additional 280 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its stake in Spire by 48.2% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $156,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Spire during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, Kingsview Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Spire during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,132,000. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Spire Price Performance

NYSE:SR opened at $73.60 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.63. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $75.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $73.06. Spire Inc. has a one year low of $57.77 and a one year high of $79.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.37.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $3.60 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.70 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.15 billion. Spire had a return on equity of 7.88% and a net margin of 9.70%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.45 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be given a $0.785 dividend. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 11th. Spire’s payout ratio is 77.34%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Spire from $85.00 to $83.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded shares of Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Guggenheim lifted their price objective 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. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Spire from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Spire presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $77.20.

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.