Spire's (SR) "Underperform" Rating Reaffirmed at Bank of America

Key Points

• Bank of America has reiterated its "underperform" rating for Spire's stock, lowering the price objective from $81 to $76, indicating potential downside from its previous close.
• Spire reported a earnings per share (EPS) of $0.01 for the last quarter, beating expectations, and demonstrated a revenue growth of 1.9% year-over-year.
• Institutional investors hold 87.36% of Spire's stock, with notable increases in holdings by firms like State Street Corp and Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "underperform" rating reiterated by investment analysts at Bank of America in a note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. They presently have a $76.00 price target on the utilities provider's stock, down from their prior price target of $81.00. Bank of America's target price would indicate a potential downside of 0.31% from the stock's current price.

SR has been the topic of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Spire from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "underperform" rating on shares of Spire in a report on Wednesday, June 18th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised Spire to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Spire from $85.00 to $83.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $81.00 target price on Spire and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Spire currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $79.20.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of SR stock traded up $0.6090 on Friday, reaching $76.2390. The stock had a trading volume of 80,271 shares, compared to its average volume of 456,010. The stock has a market cap of $4.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.66. Spire has a 1 year low of $61.56 and a 1 year high of $79.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.37. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $75.09.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $421.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $417.27 million. Spire had a return on equity of 8.66% and a net margin of 11.56%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.14) EPS. Spire has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.400-4.60 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Spire will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Spire

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Spire by 1,957.1% in the second quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 432 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 411 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Spire in the second quarter worth about $38,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its holdings in shares of Spire by 1,031.5% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 611 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 557 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Spire in the second quarter worth about $48,000. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of Spire in the first quarter worth about $50,000. 87.36% of the stock is 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.