Quadrature Capital Ltd Takes $240,000 Position in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR – Get Rating) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 3,846 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $240,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its position in shares of Spire by 47.1% during the second quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 581 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 186 shares during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC grew its holdings in Spire by 5.6% in the third quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 130,930 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,161,000 after purchasing an additional 6,991 shares during the period. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP grew its holdings in Spire by 77.1% in the second quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 195,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,502,000 after purchasing an additional 84,900 shares during the period. ARGI Investment Services LLC grew its holdings in Spire by 12.1% in the third quarter. ARGI Investment Services LLC now owns 18,432 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,149,000 after purchasing an additional 1,989 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its holdings in Spire by 69.5% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 400,905 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,831,000 after purchasing an additional 164,375 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.86% of the company’s stock.

Spire Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of Spire stock opened at $67.89 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $3.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.47. The company’s 50 day moving average is $71.39 and its 200 day moving average is $69.44. Spire Inc. has a twelve month low of $61.52 and a twelve month high of $79.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20.

Spire (NYSE:SR – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.49. The company had revenue of $814.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $561.35 million. Spire had a net margin of 10.42% and a return on equity of 9.18%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 46.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.14 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Spire Inc. will post 4.22 EPS for the current year.

Spire Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 10th will be given a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 9th. This is an increase from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.24%. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.20%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America cut shares of Spire from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $78.00 to $61.00 in a report on Monday, December 12th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Spire from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 1st. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Spire from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $73.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Monday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Spire from $69.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Spire from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.25.

Spire Profile

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Spire Inc operates as a public utility holding company, which provides natural gas service through its utility operations while engaging in non-regulated activities. It operates through the Gas Utility and Gas Marketing Business segments. The Gas Utility segment includes the regulated operations of Laclede Gas Company and Alabama Gas Corporation.