Spire Inc. $SR Shares Sold by First Trust Advisors LP

First Trust Advisors LP cut its stake in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 8.3% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 663,414 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 60,314 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Spire were worth $48,423,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Spire by 1.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 22,296 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. increased its position in shares of Spire by 32.8% during the second quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,030,625 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $75,225,000 after purchasing an additional 254,285 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised 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 during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Spire in the 1st quarter valued at $73,254,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Spire by 2.5% during the 2nd 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. 87.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on SR shares. Mizuho increased their target price 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. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Spire in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Bank of America upgraded shares of Spire from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $89.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $97.00 price target on Spire in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.83.

Spire Stock Performance

NYSE:SR opened at $82.28 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $85.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $79.04. Spire Inc. has a 1-year low of $64.44 and a 1-year high of $91.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 0.32 and a quick ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.70, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.66.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 14th. The utilities provider reported ($0.47) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.46) by ($0.01). Spire had a return on equity of 8.78% and a net margin of 10.96%.The firm had revenue of $334.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $439.56 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.54) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. Spire has set its FY 2027 guidance at 5.650-5.850 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 5.250-5.450 EPS. Analysts forecast that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Spire Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 11th will be given a $0.825 dividend. This is an increase from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.79. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 11th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.36%.

About Spire

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.