Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Stake Lessened by Dean Capital Management

Dean Capital Management trimmed its stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 40.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 24,848 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 17,214 shares during the quarter. Dean Capital Management’s holdings in Spire were worth $1,685,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Spire in the fourth quarter worth $42,432,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Spire by 29.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,022,870 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $69,381,000 after buying an additional 229,662 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in Spire by 24.0% during the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 722,782 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $49,026,000 after acquiring an additional 139,815 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Spire by 48.0% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 428,701 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,079,000 after acquiring an additional 138,971 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in Spire in the fourth quarter worth about $8,277,000. 87.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho raised their target price on Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Spire from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.40.

Spire Trading Up 0.9 %

Spire stock opened at $76.75 on Wednesday. Spire Inc. has a 12-month low of $57.77 and a 12-month high of $80.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.53 billion, a PE ratio of 18.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $76.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $71.71.

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

Spire Announces Dividend

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