Leeward Investments LLC MA Grows Holdings in Spire Inc. $SR

Leeward Investments LLC MA increased its position in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 14.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 118,102 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,586 shares during the quarter. Leeward Investments LLC MA’s holdings in Spire were worth $9,767,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Spire by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,430,368 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $531,791,000 after acquiring an additional 19,326 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Spire by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,351,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $247,162,000 after acquiring an additional 61,851 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in Spire by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,220,171 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $99,468,000 after acquiring an additional 85,004 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Spire by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,021,878 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,303,000 after acquiring an additional 14,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. increased its holdings in Spire by 158.1% in the 2nd quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,000,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $72,990,000 after acquiring an additional 612,500 shares in the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Spire Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of SR opened at $86.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 0.55 and a quick ratio of 0.48. Spire Inc. has a 1 year low of $71.24 and a 1 year high of $95.31. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $90.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $87.56. The firm has a market cap of $5.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 0.56.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The utilities provider reported $3.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.72 by $0.04. Spire had a net margin of 13.97% and a return on equity of 9.49%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.60 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Spire Inc. will post 5.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be given a dividend of $0.825 per share. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio is currently 58.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on SR shares. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Spire in a report on Thursday, April 16th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $101.00 target price for the company. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Spire from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Spire from $106.00 to $103.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 8th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Spire from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $99.00 price objective on shares of Spire in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.50.

Insider Activity at Spire

In other news, Director Paul D. Koonce bought 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 8th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $85.81 per share, for a total transaction of $171,620.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 7,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $600,670. The trade was a 40.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 2.26% of the company’s stock.

About Spire

Spire Inc (NYSE: SR), formerly known as The Laclede Group, is a regulated natural gas distribution company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Through its three operating divisions—Spire Missouri, Spire Alabama and Spire Mississippi—the company delivers natural gas to more than 1.7 million residential, commercial and industrial customers. Spire’s service territory spans key markets in the central and southern United States, including metropolitan St. Louis, central Alabama and central Mississippi.

Founded in 1857 as the Laclede Gas Light Company, the business has grown through strategic acquisitions, notably Alabama Gas Corporation in 2013 and Mississippi Gas in 2016.