Gotham Asset Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Gotham Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 45.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,558 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,422 shares during the period. Gotham Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Spire were worth $309,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of SR. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Spire during the 4th quarter valued at about $42,432,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake 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 shares of Spire by 24.0% during the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 722,782 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $49,026,000 after buying an additional 139,815 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Spire by 48.0% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 428,701 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,079,000 after buying an additional 138,971 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Spire by 15.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 778,442 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $52,802,000 after buying an additional 106,386 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on SR shares. Guggenheim lifted their price target on Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Mizuho lifted their price target on Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. StockNews.com upgraded Spire from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Spire from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $72.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $77.40.

Spire Price Performance

NYSE:SR opened at $75.13 on Wednesday. Spire Inc. has a 12 month low of $57.77 and a 12 month high of $79.81. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $76.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $72.29. The company has a current ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The firm has a market cap of $4.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $3.60 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. Spire had a return on equity of 7.88% and a net margin of 9.70%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.45 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.785 per share. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 11th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.34%.

Spire Company 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.