Kavar Capital Partners Group LLC Sells 1,303 Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Kavar Capital Partners Group LLC cut its stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR – Get Rating) by 6.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,976 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,303 shares during the quarter. Kavar Capital Partners Group LLC’s holdings in Spire were worth $1,238,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in SR. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Spire by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 5,345 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $384,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Spire by 15.2% during the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 5,593 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $402,000 after purchasing an additional 736 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Spire by 9.0% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 7,826 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $562,000 after purchasing an additional 645 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its holdings in shares of Spire by 4.8% in the first quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 26,019 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,868,000 after buying an additional 1,196 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can lifted its holdings in shares of Spire by 13.0% in the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 61,725 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,635,000 after buying an additional 7,086 shares in the last quarter. 99.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Spire from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 20th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Spire in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Mizuho dropped their price target on Spire from $73.00 to $71.00 in a research note on Friday, May 12th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Spire from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a report on Friday, February 3rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $72.00 in a report on Thursday, May 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.00.

Spire Trading Down 0.7 %

SR stock traded down $0.47 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $65.18. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 65,514 shares, compared to its average volume of 263,857. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $69.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $70.02. Spire Inc. has a 1 year low of $61.52 and a 1 year high of $78.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.00, a PEG ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 0.49.

Spire (NYSE:SR – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported $3.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $887.98 million. Spire had a return on equity of 9.75% and a net margin of 9.69%. The company’s revenue was up 27.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.42 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Spire Inc. will post 4.26 EPS for the current year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 9th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 61.41%.

Spire Profile

(Get Rating)

Spire Inc operates as a public utility holding company, which provides natural gas service through its utility operations while engaging in non-regulated activities. It operates through the Gas Utility and Gas Marketing Business segments. The Gas Utility segment includes the regulated operations of Laclede Gas Company and Alabama Gas Corporation.