Janus Henderson Group PLC Increases Stock Position in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 13.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 27,072 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,160 shares during the quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC’s holdings in Spire were worth $1,822,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Spire by 26.8% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 761 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its position in shares of Spire by 5.2% in the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 3,572 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $240,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the period. Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Spire by 2.7% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 7,126 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $480,000 after buying an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co raised its stake in Spire by 28.6% during the third quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co now owns 900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Spire by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $358,000 after buying an additional 228 shares during the period. 87.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Spire

In other Spire news, Director Paul D. Koonce purchased 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was bought at an average price of $73.61 per share, with a total value of $73,610.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 2,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $178,504.25. This represents a 70.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.86% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on SR. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH cut shares of Spire from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $65.50 to $60.50 in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Spire from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Spire from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Spire from $77.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Spire from $70.00 to $69.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $69.93.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:SR opened at $68.08 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.45. Spire Inc. has a twelve month low of $56.36 and a twelve month high of $73.64. The firm has a market cap of $3.93 billion, a PE ratio of 15.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.57. The business has a fifty day moving average of $67.19 and a 200-day moving average of $64.76.

Spire Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a dividend of $3.14 per share. This is an increase from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $12.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 18.45%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. Spire’s payout ratio is currently 72.85%.

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.