First Trust Advisors LP Has $49.58 Million Holdings in Spire Inc. $SR

First Trust Advisors LP reduced its stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 4.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 547,637 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 26,810 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned approximately 0.93% of Spire worth $49,583,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SR. Magellan Asset Management Ltd increased its stake in shares of Spire by 21.4% in the first quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 56,048 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,075,000 after acquiring an additional 9,883 shares during the last quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp bought a new stake in shares of Spire in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $955,000. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Spire in the first quarter worth approximately $43,000. Swiss National Bank raised its position in Spire by 0.4% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 116,850 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,580,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in Spire by 0.8% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 38,457 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,483,000 after acquiring an additional 289 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on SR shares. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Spire in a report on Wednesday. BTIG Research set a $101.00 price objective on Spire in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Spire in a research note on Monday, May 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $96.00 price objective on the stock. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Spire in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Mizuho started coverage on Spire in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $88.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $94.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Spire news, Director Paul D. Koonce purchased 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 11th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $78.46 per share, for a total transaction of $39,230.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 8,000 shares in the company, valued at $627,680. This represents a 6.67% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Ryan L. Hyman sold 3,822 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.51, for a total value of $307,709.22. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 14,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,150,890.45. This represents a 21.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders acquired a total of 3,000 shares of company stock worth $251,100 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.26% of the company’s stock.

Spire Stock Down 0.1%

Spire stock opened at $83.17 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $4.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 0.55 and a quick ratio of 0.48. Spire Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.24 and a fifty-two week high of $95.31. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $81.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $86.06.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The utilities provider reported $3.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.72 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.07 billion. Spire had a return on equity of 9.49% and a net margin of 13.97%.The firm’s revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.60 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Spire Inc. will post 4.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a $0.825 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.0%. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.00%.

Spire 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.