New York State Teachers Retirement System Decreases Stake in Spire Inc. $SR

New York State Teachers Retirement System cut its holdings in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 11.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 45,774 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 5,705 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.08% of Spire worth $3,341,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Spire by 9.1% in the second quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 974,127 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $71,102,000 after buying an additional 80,965 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Spire in the first quarter valued at approximately $73,254,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Spire by 110.4% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 522,323 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,872,000 after buying an additional 274,124 shares in the last quarter. OLD Republic International Corp boosted its stake in shares of Spire by 1.0% in the first quarter. OLD Republic International Corp now owns 433,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,921,000 after buying an additional 4,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. purchased a new stake in shares of Spire in the first quarter valued at approximately $30,322,000. 87.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on SR shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Spire in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $81.00 price target on Spire and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and set a $76.00 target price (down from $81.00) on shares of Spire in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Spire from $81.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.36.

Spire Stock Up 2.3%

SR opened at $87.33 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $78.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $76.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.37. The company has a market cap of $5.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.86, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.69. Spire Inc. has a one year low of $61.87 and a one year high of $87.42.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.10. Spire had a return on equity of 8.66% and a net margin of 11.56%.The company had revenue of $421.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $417.27 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.14) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Spire has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.400-4.60 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 11th were issued a $0.785 dividend. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 11th. Spire’s payout ratio is 67.82%.

Spire 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.