Dean Investment Associates LLC Has $2.50 Million Stake in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Dean Investment Associates LLC lowered its stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 41.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 36,868 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 26,304 shares during the period. Dean Investment Associates LLC owned approximately 0.06% of Spire worth $2,501,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in SR. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Spire by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,385,452 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $93,244,000 after acquiring an additional 71,798 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Spire in the fourth quarter valued at $1,030,000. KBC Group NV lifted its position in Spire by 48.2% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $156,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Spire by 15.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 778,442 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $52,802,000 after buying an additional 106,386 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Spire by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 834,647 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $56,614,000 after buying an additional 28,715 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Spire from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Spire from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $72.00 to $85.00 in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $76.70.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:SR opened at $77.48 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $75.93 and a 200-day moving average of $70.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.50. Spire Inc. has a twelve month low of $57.77 and a twelve month high of $79.81. The firm has a market cap of $4.52 billion, a PE ratio of 18.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.56.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.42 by ($0.08). Spire had a net margin of 9.70% and a return on equity of 7.88%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Spire Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were given a $0.785 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.05%. Spire’s payout ratio is 76.03%.

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.