Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Buys 346 Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 20.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,030 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 346 shares during the quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s holdings in Spire were worth $138,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Spire by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,154,230 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $214,535,000 after acquiring an additional 44,969 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Spire by 5.5% during the third 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. grew its stake in Spire by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 834,647 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $56,614,000 after purchasing an additional 28,715 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Spire by 15.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 106,386 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in Spire by 0.3% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 646,206 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,483,000 after buying an additional 1,681 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on SR. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Spire in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Spire from $70.00 to $69.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Janney Montgomery Scott assumed coverage on Spire in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $73.00 target price for the company. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Spire from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $74.00.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of SR opened at $76.39 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.53. Spire Inc. has a 52 week low of $57.27 and a 52 week high of $78.80. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $71.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $68.46. 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 (NYSE:SR) last announced its quarterly 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%. Equities analysts forecast that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be issued a $0.785 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.11%. Spire’s dividend payout ratio is currently 76.03%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Treasurer Adam W. Woodard sold 1,150 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.47, for a total transaction of $77,590.50. Following the completion of the sale, the treasurer now directly owns 2,587 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $174,544.89. This trade represents a 30.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 2.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.