Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Receives $78.60 Average PT from Analysts

Key Points

• Spire Inc. has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from ten brokerages, with one sell recommendation, five holds, three buys, and one strong buy.
• The company's most recent quarterly earnings showed a miss on EPS estimates, reporting $3.60 against a consensus of $3.70, and a revenue of $1.05 billion, down 6.8% from the previous year.
• Spire has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.785 per share, resulting in an annualized yield of 4.2% and indicating a payout ratio of 77.34%.

Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average recommendation of "Hold" from the ten brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $78.60.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on SR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Spire from $85.00 to $83.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "underperform" rating on shares of Spire in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $81.00 target price on shares of Spire and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Spire from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st.

Spire Stock Down 0.3%

SR stock traded down $0.26 during trading on Friday, reaching $74.93. The stock had a trading volume of 227,019 shares, compared to its average volume of 456,867. Spire has a one year low of $61.56 and a one year high of $79.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The company's 50 day moving average is $74.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $74.70. The company has a market capitalization of $4.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.66.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.10. Spire had a net margin of 10.22% and a return on equity of 8.49%. The business had revenue of $421.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $417.27 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.14) EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Spire will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 11th will be given a dividend of $0.785 per share. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 11th. Spire's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 77.34%.

Institutional Trading of Spire

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Spire by 29.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,022,870 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $69,381,000 after purchasing an additional 229,662 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Spire by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,002,938 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $68,028,000 after buying an additional 15,835 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its position in Spire by 9.1% in the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 974,127 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $71,102,000 after buying an additional 80,965 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Spire in the 1st quarter valued at about $73,254,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Spire by 13.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 845,612 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $57,358,000 after buying an additional 97,573 shares during the period. 87.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Spire

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.