Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $63.88.

SR has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho raised Spire from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $71.00 to $66.00 in a report on Friday, September 29th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Spire from $67.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Spire from $72.00 to $66.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 25th. StockNews.com upgraded Spire to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Guggenheim dropped their price target on Spire from $65.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Monday, October 9th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Spire

In related news, Treasurer Adam W. Woodard acquired 1,000 shares of Spire stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 1st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $58.70 per share, with a total value of $58,700.00. Following the purchase, the treasurer now directly owns 4,190 shares in the company, valued at approximately $245,953. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Spire news, Director Paul D. Koonce bought 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 20th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $60.95 per share, with a total value of $30,475.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,475. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Treasurer Adam W. Woodard bought 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 1st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $58.70 per share, with a total value of $58,700.00. Following the transaction, the treasurer now owns 4,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $245,953. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders bought 4,600 shares of company stock valued at $184,717. 2.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Spire

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Duality Advisers LP purchased a new stake in shares of Spire during the first quarter worth $270,000. Dean Investment Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Spire by 17.5% during the second quarter. Dean Investment Associates LLC now owns 60,824 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,859,000 after acquiring an additional 9,054 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in Spire by 60.0% during the second quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 10,129 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $643,000 after buying an additional 3,800 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Spire by 78.9% during the second quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 87,868 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,573,000 after buying an additional 38,765 shares in the last quarter. Finally, IFM Investors Pty Ltd bought a new position in Spire during the second quarter valued at about $401,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Spire Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SR opened at $60.95 on Thursday. Spire has a 1-year low of $53.77 and a 1-year high of $75.83. The business has a 50-day moving average of $57.83 and a 200-day moving average of $61.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.40. The company has a market capitalization of $3.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.83, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 0.50.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 16th. The utilities provider reported ($0.78) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.64) by ($0.14). The business had revenue of $310.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $337.48 million. Spire had a net margin of 8.16% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.66) EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Spire will post 4.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Spire Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.755 per share. This is a positive change from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $3.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.95%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 8th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.81%.

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 two segments, Gas Utility and Gas Marketing. It is also involved in the marketing of natural gas.