Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Short Interest Update

Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,340,000 shares, a drop of 14.6% from the March 15th total of 1,570,000 shares. Approximately 2.4% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 441,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Spire from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $72.00 to $85.00 in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Guggenheim raised their price target on Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded shares of Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $76.70.

Institutional Trading of Spire

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Spire during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Spire by 87.2% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new position in Spire during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in Spire during the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its stake in Spire by 431.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 627 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Spire Trading Down 1.2 %

NYSE:SR opened at $76.68 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $4.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.56. Spire has a twelve month low of $57.77 and a twelve month high of $79.81. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $76.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $70.82. 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 (NYSE:SR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.34 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%. As a group, analysts expect that Spire will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Spire Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th were given a $0.785 dividend. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 11th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio is currently 76.03%.

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.