Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Shares Sold by Jane Street Group LLC

Jane Street Group LLC cut its position in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) by 62.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 36,607 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 60,296 shares during the quarter. Jane Street Group LLC owned approximately 0.06% of Spire worth $2,463,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Spire by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,154,230 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $214,535,000 after purchasing an additional 44,969 shares during the period. Petrus Trust Company LTA purchased a new stake in shares of Spire in the third quarter valued at about $702,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of Spire by 13.2% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 27,072 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,822,000 after buying an additional 3,160 shares during the period. ClearAlpha Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Spire during the third quarter worth about $277,000. Finally, Verition Fund Management LLC increased its position in Spire by 46.9% in the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 9,806 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $660,000 after acquiring an additional 3,130 shares during the period. 87.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SR has been the topic of several analyst reports. Mizuho upgraded Spire from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $65.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Friday. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. 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 research report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Spire from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH lowered shares of Spire from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $65.50 to $60.50 in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Treasurer Adam W. Woodard sold 1,150 shares of Spire stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.47, for a total transaction of $77,590.50. Following the completion of the sale, the treasurer now directly owns 2,587 shares in the company, valued at $174,544.89. The trade was a 30.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Paul D. Koonce purchased 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $73.61 per share, with a total value of $73,610.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 2,425 shares in the company, valued at $178,504.25. The trade was a 70.18 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 2.86% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Spire Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of Spire stock opened at $66.69 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $67.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $65.10. Spire Inc. has a 12-month low of $56.36 and a 12-month high of $73.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The stock has a market cap of $3.85 billion, a PE ratio of 15.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.57.

Spire Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a $3.14 dividend. This is an increase from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $12.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 18.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 72.85%.

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.