Allianz Asset Management GmbH Buys 274,435 Shares of Spire Inc. $SR

Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 4,909.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 280,025 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 274,435 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH owned approximately 0.47% of Spire worth $20,439,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bayforest Capital Ltd increased its position in shares of Spire by 840.9% during the second quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 6,464 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $472,000 after acquiring an additional 5,777 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Spire during the second quarter worth $599,000. CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Spire by 19.7% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 19,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,440,000 after acquiring an additional 3,241 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its position in shares of Spire by 12.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 8,974 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $655,000 after acquiring an additional 1,018 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Spire by 18.2% during the second quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 5,440 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $397,000 after acquiring an additional 836 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on SR shares. Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $76.00 price objective (down previously from $81.00) on shares of Spire in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $81.00 target price on shares of Spire and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Spire from $81.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Spire from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.36.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of SR stock opened at $85.47 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $5.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.69. 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 company has a fifty day moving average price of $78.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $76.07. Spire Inc. has a one year low of $61.87 and a one year high of $86.31.

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

Spire Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 11th were paid a $0.785 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 11th. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. 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.