Hennessy Advisors Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. reduced its position in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 1.8% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 58,891 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,100 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Spire were worth $3,614,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Spire by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,968,088 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $394,254,000 after acquiring an additional 52,893 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Spire by 0.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,583,880 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $315,936,000 after purchasing an additional 36,022 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Spire by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 837,103 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $52,185,000 after purchasing an additional 19,032 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Spire by 25.7% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 788,694 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $44,624,000 after purchasing an additional 161,171 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Spire by 11.6% during the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 772,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $48,127,000 after acquiring an additional 80,405 shares during the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Spire from $67.00 to $64.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Spire from $64.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Spire in a report on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $68.00 price objective on the stock. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH initiated coverage on shares of Spire in a research note on Friday, April 26th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $57.50 target price on the stock. Finally, Mizuho downgraded shares of Spire from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $64.00 to $62.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $61.83.

Insider Transactions at Spire

In other news, EVP Steven P. Rasche acquired 4,500 shares of Spire stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $23.83 per share, with a total value of $107,235.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $393,195. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.86% of the company’s stock.

Spire Stock Performance

Spire stock traded up $0.89 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $60.10. 321,756 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 442,835. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.51. The business has a 50 day moving average of $60.63 and a two-hundred day moving average of $60.45. Spire Inc. has a 12 month low of $53.77 and a 12 month high of $66.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.48.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $3.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.86 by ($0.41). Spire had a return on equity of 7.88% and a net margin of 9.05%. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.21 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.70 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Spire Inc. will post 4.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 11th will be paid a $0.755 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 11th. This represents a $3.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.02%. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 76.26%.

Spire Company 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.