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

Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $62.50.

Several brokerages have weighed in on SR. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Spire from $67.00 to $64.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 24th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Spire from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st.

Spire Stock Performance

SR stock opened at $66.28 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.48. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $64.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $61.94. Spire has a 52 week low of $53.77 and a 52 week high of $68.02.

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

Spire Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.755 per share. This represents a $3.02 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 11th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio is currently 76.26%.

Insider Activity at Spire

In other Spire news, Director Maria V. Fogarty sold 6,590 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,800 shares in the company, valued at $638,470. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, VP Gerard J. Gorla sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.82, for a total transaction of $32,410.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 7,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $473,899.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Maria V. Fogarty sold 6,590 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.15, for a total transaction of $429,338.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $638,470. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.86% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in SR. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Spire by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,626,863 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $345,321,000 after buying an additional 65,486 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Spire by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 944,387 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $57,351,000 after acquiring an additional 72,119 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Spire by 11.0% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 698,819 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,439,000 after acquiring an additional 69,020 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Spire by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 677,338 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $42,225,000 after purchasing an additional 28,474 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in Spire by 1.7% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 644,525 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $39,142,000 after purchasing an additional 10,562 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.