Captrust Financial Advisors Purchases 85,004 Shares of Spire Inc. $SR

Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 7.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,220,171 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 85,004 shares during the quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors owned approximately 2.07% of Spire worth $99,468,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Spire by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,411,042 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $522,628,000 after purchasing an additional 123,584 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Spire by 1.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,351,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $247,162,000 after purchasing an additional 61,851 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Spire by 1.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,512,167 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $110,386,000 after buying an additional 22,296 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Spire by 1.5% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,021,878 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,303,000 after buying an additional 14,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in Spire by 3.0% in the third quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,003,262 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $81,786,000 after buying an additional 29,135 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Mizuho lifted their target price on Spire from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. UBS Group raised their price target on Spire from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Spire from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $99.00 price objective on shares of Spire in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Spire from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Spire presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.70.

Spire Trading Down 0.3%

SR stock opened at $91.81 on Wednesday. Spire Inc. has a 52 week low of $69.94 and a 52 week high of $94.27. The company has a market capitalization of $5.43 billion, a PE ratio of 19.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.64. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $87.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $84.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.61.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The utilities provider reported $1.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.15. Spire had a net margin of 10.95% and a return on equity of 9.43%. The firm had revenue of $762.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $785.54 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.34 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Spire has set its FY 2027 guidance at 5.650-5.850 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 5.250-5.450 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be issued a $0.825 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. This represents a $3.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. Spire’s payout ratio is currently 71.74%.

Spire Company Profile

Spire Inc (NYSE: SR), formerly known as The Laclede Group, is a regulated natural gas distribution company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Through its three operating divisions—Spire Missouri, Spire Alabama and Spire Mississippi—the company delivers natural gas to more than 1.7 million residential, commercial and industrial customers. Spire’s service territory spans key markets in the central and southern United States, including metropolitan St. Louis, central Alabama and central Mississippi.

Founded in 1857 as the Laclede Gas Light Company, the business has grown through strategic acquisitions, notably Alabama Gas Corporation in 2013 and Mississippi Gas in 2016.