Pictet Asset Management SA Purchases 17,139 Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Feb 27th, 2023

Pictet Asset Management SA grew its position in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR – Get Rating) by 80.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 38,468 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,139 shares during the quarter. Pictet Asset Management SA owned approximately 0.07% of Spire worth $2,398,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of SR. Wipfli Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Spire in the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Private Trust Co. NA purchased a new stake in shares of Spire in the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Spire by 47.1% during the 2nd quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 581 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its stake in Spire by 31.8% in the first quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 639 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gladius Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Spire during the second quarter valued at about $90,000. 99.86% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on SR shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Spire from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $69.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, December 5th. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Spire from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $73.00 to $75.00 in a report on Monday, February 6th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Spire from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a report on Friday, February 3rd. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Spire from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 7th. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of Spire from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $78.00 to $61.00 in a research report on Monday, December 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.25.

Spire Stock Performance

Spire stock opened at $71.64 on Monday. Spire Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $61.52 and a fifty-two week high of $79.24. The stock has a market cap of $3.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.47, a PEG ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 0.46. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $69.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.68.

Spire (NYSE:SR – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.49. The company had revenue of $814.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $561.35 million. Spire had a return on equity of 9.18% and a net margin of 10.42%. The firm’s revenue was up 46.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.14 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Spire Inc. will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 4th. Investors of record on Friday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 9th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.02%. This is a positive change from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. Spire’s payout ratio is presently 62.20%.

Spire Company Profile

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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.