KBC Group NV Sells 1,357 Shares of Spire Inc. $SR

KBC Group NV reduced its position in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 46.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,581 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,357 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Spire were worth $115,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SR. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Spire by 1,957.1% during the second quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 432 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 411 shares during the period. Quarry LP bought a new stake in Spire during the 1st quarter valued at $50,000. Bayforest Capital Ltd raised its holdings in Spire by 2,648.0% during the first quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 687 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 662 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Spire by 75.2% in the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 785 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 337 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Spire by 2,602.5% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,081 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $85,000 after buying an additional 1,041 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BTIG Research raised shares of Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Bank of America upgraded Spire from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $76.00 to $89.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley set a $97.00 price target on Spire in a report on Thursday. UBS Group increased their price target on Spire from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Spire from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $86.83.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of SR stock opened at $86.13 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 market cap of $5.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.72. Spire Inc. has a 52 week low of $64.44 and a 52 week high of $91.11. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $84.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $78.07.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 14th. The utilities provider reported ($0.47) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.46) by ($0.01). Spire had a return on equity of 8.66% and a net margin of 11.56%.The company had revenue of $334.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $439.56 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.54) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. Spire has set its FY 2027 guidance at 5.650-5.850 EPS. FY 2026 guidance at 5.250-5.450 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Spire Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.825 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 11th. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. This is a boost from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.79. Spire’s payout ratio is currently 75.00%.

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.