Parallel Advisors LLC Boosts Holdings in Spire Inc. $SR

Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 75.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 785 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 337 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC’s holdings in Spire were worth $57,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of SR. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Spire during the first quarter worth about $73,254,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Spire in the 1st quarter worth approximately $69,889,000. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. purchased a new stake in Spire in the 1st quarter worth approximately $30,322,000. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Spire by 110.4% during the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 522,323 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,872,000 after purchasing an additional 274,124 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Spire by 29.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,022,870 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $69,381,000 after purchasing an additional 229,662 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on SR. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Spire from $81.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus set a $81.00 price objective on shares of Spire and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $76.00 target price (down from $81.00) on shares of Spire in a research note on Friday, August 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $78.80.

Spire Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SR opened at $78.80 on Friday. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average of $76.12 and a 200 day moving average of $75.45. The firm has a market cap of $4.65 billion, a PE ratio of 17.02, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.70. Spire Inc. has a one year low of $61.56 and a one year high of $79.81.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.10. The business had revenue of $421.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $417.27 million. Spire had a net margin of 11.56% and a return on equity of 8.66%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.14) earnings per share. Spire has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.400-4.60 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.785 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 11th. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.0%. Spire’s dividend payout ratio is presently 67.82%.

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.