Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Acquires 346 Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its holdings in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 20.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,030 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 346 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s holdings in Spire were worth $138,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in SR. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lifted its position in Spire by 5.2% during the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 3,572 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $240,000 after acquiring an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co lifted its holdings in Spire by 28.6% during the 3rd quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co now owns 900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Spire by 87.2% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Spire by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $358,000 after buying an additional 228 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its position in Spire by 11.7% during the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,308 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $157,000 after buying an additional 241 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SR has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Spire from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Spire from $70.00 to $69.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of Spire from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $83.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho upgraded Spire from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $65.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Spire from $77.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $74.00.

Spire Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE SR opened at $76.39 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $71.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $68.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.46 billion, a PE ratio of 18.50, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.53. Spire Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $57.27 and a fifty-two week high of $78.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.37.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.42 by ($0.08). Spire had a net margin of 9.70% and a return on equity of 7.88%. Equities analysts expect that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.785 per share. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio is 76.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Spire news, Treasurer Adam W. Woodard sold 1,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.47, for a total value of $77,590.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the treasurer now owns 2,587 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $174,544.89. This represents a 30.77 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 2.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.