Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) has earned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the ten brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $77.40.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on SR shares. StockNews.com raised Spire from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Spire from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $72.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded shares of Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th.

Institutional Trading of Spire

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Spire by 127.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 109,372 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $7,360,000 after acquiring an additional 61,357 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in Spire in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,277,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new stake in Spire in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,241,000. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC boosted its stake in shares of Spire by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 4,444 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $304,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares during the period. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its holdings in shares of Spire by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 12,155 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $824,000 after purchasing an additional 466 shares during the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of SR opened at $73.26 on Monday. Spire has a 52-week low of $57.77 and a 52-week high of $79.81. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $76.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $3.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $3.70 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.15 billion. Spire had a return on equity of 7.88% and a net margin of 9.70%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.45 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Spire will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be given a $0.785 dividend. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 11th. Spire's payout ratio is presently 77.34%.

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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