Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.79

Key Points

• Spire Inc. declared a quarterly dividend of $0.79 per share, amounting to an annualized dividend of $3.14 with a yield of 4.20%, payable on October 2nd to investors of record on September 11th.
• The company has a dividend payout ratio of 62.1% and analysts predict future earnings of $4.88 per share, suggesting the dividend will remain sustainable.
• Spire's stock showed a 0.9% increase during trading, reaching $74.68, with an average target price from analysts set at $78.60 and a current market cap of $4.41 billion.

Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, July 31st, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, September 11th will be given a dividend of 0.785 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, October 2nd. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.20%.

Spire has a dividend payout ratio of 62.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Spire to earn $4.88 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.14 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 64.3%.

Spire Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of NYSE:SR traded up $0.66 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $74.68. The company had a trading volume of 543,429 shares, compared to its average volume of 448,180. Spire has a 12 month low of $61.56 and a 12 month high of $79.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The stock has a market cap of $4.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.39, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.62. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $74.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $74.45.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $3.60 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.70 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. Spire had a return on equity of 8.49% and a net margin of 10.22%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.45 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Spire will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Spire from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus set a $81.00 price target on Spire and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "underperform" rating on shares of Spire in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Spire from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Spire has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $78.60.

Institutional Trading of Spire

A hedge fund recently bought a new stake in Spire stock. Jane Street Group LLC acquired a new position in Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 123,147 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $9,636,000. Jane Street Group LLC owned about 0.21% of Spire as of its most recent SEC filing. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company's stock.

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.

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