Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eight brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have issued a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $63.83.

A number of equities analysts have commented on SR shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Spire from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Spire from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st.

Spire Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SR opened at $65.12 on Friday. Spire has a one year low of $54.15 and a one year high of $68.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.44, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $65.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $62.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.48.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported ($0.14) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by $0.04. Spire had a return on equity of 8.10% and a net margin of 9.40%. The firm had revenue of $414.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $313.86 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.42) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Spire will post 4.23 EPS for the current year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 11th were issued a $0.755 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 11th. This represents a $3.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.64%. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 76.26%.

Insider Activity at Spire

In other Spire news, Director Maria V. Fogarty sold 6,590 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.15, for a total transaction of $429,338.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $638,470. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Spire news, Director Maria V. Fogarty sold 6,590 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.15, for a total value of $429,338.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $638,470. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Gerard J. Gorla sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.82, for a total value of $32,410.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 7,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $473,899.02. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.86% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Spire

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its holdings in shares of Spire by 592.5% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 46,338 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,889,000 after purchasing an additional 39,647 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd boosted its holdings in Spire by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 14,970 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $934,000 after acquiring an additional 1,629 shares during the last quarter. Dean Capital Management grew its position in Spire by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. Dean Capital Management now owns 36,787 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,293,000 after acquiring an additional 4,595 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Spire by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 186,652 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,636,000 after acquiring an additional 7,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tortoise Index Solutions LLC raised its holdings in shares of Spire by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Tortoise Index Solutions LLC now owns 103,790 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,470,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.