Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the seven brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $62.25.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on SR shares. UBS Group started coverage on Spire in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $68.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Spire in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Mizuho cut their price objective on Spire from $66.00 to $64.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 22nd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Spire news, Treasurer Adam W. Woodard sold 1,229 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.58, for a total value of $73,223.82. Following the sale, the treasurer now directly owns 1,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $92,944.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Joseph B. Hampton sold 1,294 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.13, for a total value of $75,220.22. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,768 shares in the company, valued at approximately $393,423.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Treasurer Adam W. Woodard sold 1,229 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.58, for a total value of $73,223.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the treasurer now owns 1,560 shares in the company, valued at $92,944.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.86% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Spire

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in shares of Spire by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,152,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $453,726,000 after acquiring an additional 396,807 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Spire by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,968,088 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $394,254,000 after acquiring an additional 52,893 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Spire by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,583,880 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $315,936,000 after purchasing an additional 36,022 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Spire by 70,596.2% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,264,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $293,646,000 after purchasing an additional 4,258,360 shares during the period. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Spire by 126.0% during the 3rd quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,501,638 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $198,123,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951,969 shares during the period. 87.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of SR opened at $59.40 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16. Spire has a 52-week low of $53.77 and a 52-week high of $70.60. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $59.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.77. The company has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.51.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.37 by $0.10. Spire had a return on equity of 8.27% and a net margin of 8.11%. The company had revenue of $756.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $688.88 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.55 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Spire will post 4.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 11th were paid a $0.755 dividend. This represents a $3.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 8th. Spire’s payout ratio is 81.40%.

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.