Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. Buys 29,135 Shares of Spire Inc. $SR

Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 3.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,003,262 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 29,135 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. owned approximately 1.70% of Spire worth $81,786,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Spire by 1.9% during 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. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Spire by 1.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,512,167 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $110,386,000 after purchasing an additional 22,296 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in Spire by 7.7% during the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,135,167 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $82,856,000 after purchasing an additional 80,929 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its stake in shares of Spire by 32.8% in the 2nd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,030,625 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $75,225,000 after buying an additional 254,285 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 612,500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley set a $97.00 price objective on Spire in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Bank of America raised Spire from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Spire in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on Spire from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Spire presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $88.55.

Spire Stock Performance

SR stock opened at $82.07 on Wednesday. Spire Inc. has a twelve month low of $65.15 and a twelve month high of $91.11. The firm has a market cap of $4.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.65, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.67. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $85.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $80.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 14th. The utilities provider reported ($0.47) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.46) by ($0.01). Spire had a net margin of 10.96% and a return on equity of 8.78%. The business had revenue of $334.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $439.56 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.54) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Spire has set its FY 2027 guidance at 5.650-5.850 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 5.250-5.450 EPS. Analysts predict that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Spire Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 11th were issued a dividend of $0.825 per share. This represents a $3.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.0%. This is an increase from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.79. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 11th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio is currently 75.00%.

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.