AXQ Capital LP Makes New $572,000 Investment in Spire Inc. $SR

AXQ Capital LP acquired a new stake in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 7,017 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $572,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SR. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Spire by 2.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,411,042 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $522,628,000 after purchasing an additional 123,584 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Spire by 1.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,351,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $247,162,000 after purchasing an additional 61,851 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Spire by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,512,167 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $110,386,000 after purchasing an additional 22,296 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in shares of Spire by 7.7% in the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,135,167 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $82,856,000 after buying an additional 80,929 shares during the period. Finally, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its stake 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 valued at $75,225,000 after buying an additional 254,285 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on SR. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $99.00 price target on shares of Spire in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Bank of America raised Spire from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $76.00 to $89.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of Spire in a research report on Friday. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Spire from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Spire from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $90.00.

Spire Stock Down 0.3%

Spire stock opened at $90.55 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.61. The stock has a market cap of $5.35 billion, a PE ratio of 19.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.67. Spire Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $69.94 and a fifty-two week high of $92.53. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $84.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $83.11.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The utilities provider reported $1.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $785.54 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.34 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue 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. Research analysts predict that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be given 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%.

About Spire

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.