Cibc World Markets Corp Acquires Shares of 5,317 Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Cibc World Markets Corp bought a new position in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 5,317 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $361,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in Spire by 1.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,154,230 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $214,535,000 after purchasing an additional 44,969 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Spire by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,385,452 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $93,244,000 after purchasing an additional 71,798 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Spire by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 834,647 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $56,614,000 after buying an additional 28,715 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position 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 valued at $52,802,000 after buying an additional 106,386 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors purchased a new stake in Spire during the third quarter worth about $39,228,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SR has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Bank of America assumed coverage on Spire in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 target price for the company. Mizuho upped their price target on Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. StockNews.com upgraded Spire from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott started coverage on shares of Spire in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $73.00 price objective on the stock. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $76.00.

Spire Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of SR opened at $76.98 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $73.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $69.28. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. Spire Inc. has a twelve month low of $57.27 and a twelve month high of $78.83. The stock has a market cap of $4.49 billion, a PE ratio of 18.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.53.

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

Spire Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.785 per share. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.08%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. Spire’s payout ratio is 76.03%.

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.