Aigen Investment Management LP Invests $425,000 in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR)

Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new position in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 6,311 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $425,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Spire during the second quarter worth approximately $2,233,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Spire in the first quarter valued at $2,401,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Spire by 197.4% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 162,195 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,850,000 after acquiring an additional 107,662 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Spire by 1.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,626,863 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $345,321,000 after purchasing an additional 65,486 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of Spire by 116.2% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 28,025 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,886,000 after purchasing an additional 15,060 shares in the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Spire from $72.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH downgraded Spire from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $65.50 to $60.50 in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Spire from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Spire from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.19.

Insider Transactions at Spire

In other news, VP Gerard J. Gorla sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.82, for a total transaction of $32,410.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 7,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $473,899.02. This represents a 6.40 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.86% of the company’s stock.

Spire Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:SR opened at $65.96 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.92, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.52. Spire Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $56.36 and a fifty-two week high of $68.02. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $65.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11.

Spire Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $3.14 per share. This is a boost from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $12.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 19.04%. Spire’s payout ratio is presently 72.60%.

Spire Company 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.