Bank of America Reaffirms "Underperform" Rating for Spire (NYSE:SR)

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 reissued by stock analysts at Bank of America in a research note issued on Friday, MarketBeat reports. They presently have a $76.00 price objective on the utilities provider's stock, down from their previous price objective of $81.00. Bank of America's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 0.57% from the stock's previous close.

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

Spire Price Performance

Shares of SR stock traded up $0.37 on Friday, reaching $75.57. The company's stock had a trading volume of 482,662 shares, compared to its average volume of 458,316. The company has a quick ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. Spire has a 12-month low of $61.56 and a 12-month high of $79.81. The company has a market capitalization of $4.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.32, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.66. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $74.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $75.08.

Spire (NYSE:SR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.10. The business had revenue of $421.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $417.27 million. Spire had a return on equity of 8.66% and a net margin of 11.56%.The firm's revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.14) earnings per share. Spire has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.400-4.60 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Spire will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Spire

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its stake 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 purchased a new stake in Spire in the second quarter worth about $38,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 557 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Spire in the second quarter worth about $48,000. Finally, Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Spire in the first quarter worth about $50,000. 87.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.