Vanguard Group Inc. Purchases 9,601 Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 0.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,177,822 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,601 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 10.47% of Spire worth $483,415,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Spire during the first quarter worth about $9,035,000. Commerce Bank grew its stake in Spire by 14.9% during the first quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 25,944 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,030,000 after buying an additional 3,372 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Spire during the first quarter worth about $12,354,000. Bayforest Capital Ltd grew its stake in Spire by 2,648.0% during the first quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 687 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 662 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Spire during the first quarter worth about $4,383,000. 87.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Spire from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded shares of Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Spire from $85.00 to $83.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Spire in a research report on Wednesday, June 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $78.60.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of Spire stock opened at $77.50 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $74.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $74.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.74, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.66. Spire Inc. has a 52 week low of $61.56 and a 52 week high of $79.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.37.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.01 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.10. The company 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.14) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 11th will be given a dividend of $0.785 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 11th. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.1%. Spire’s payout ratio is presently 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.