Spire Inc. $SR Shares Sold by Baird Financial Group Inc.

Baird Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 7.2% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 110,314 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 8,497 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Spire were worth $8,052,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Spire by 1.5% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,512,167 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $110,386,000 after buying an additional 22,296 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of Spire by 32.8% in the 2nd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,030,625 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $75,225,000 after acquiring an additional 254,285 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its stake in Spire by 9.1% in the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 974,127 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $71,102,000 after purchasing an additional 80,965 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Spire in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $73,254,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Spire by 2.5% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 797,644 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $58,220,000 after purchasing an additional 19,115 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on SR shares. BTIG Research upgraded Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Spire in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Spire from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Spire from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.83.

Spire Stock Down 0.2%

SR stock opened at $82.28 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.70, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a current ratio of 0.32. Spire Inc. has a one year low of $64.44 and a one year high of $91.11. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $85.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $79.04.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 14th. The utilities provider reported ($0.47) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.46) by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $334.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $439.56 million. Spire had a return on equity of 8.78% and a net margin of 10.96%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.54) EPS. 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 expect that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Spire Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.825 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 11th. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.0%. This is an increase from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.79. Spire’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.36%.

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.