Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the ten research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $76.70.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Spire from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $72.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Spire from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Spire

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Spire in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,030,000. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in shares of Spire by 48.2% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $156,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Spire by 15.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 778,442 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $52,802,000 after purchasing an additional 106,386 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Spire by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 834,647 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $56,614,000 after purchasing an additional 28,715 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Spire by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 173,374 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,760,000 after purchasing an additional 3,163 shares during the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Spire Trading Down 0.6 %

Spire stock opened at $77.44 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $76.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $70.92. Spire has a 52-week low of $57.77 and a 52-week high of $79.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The company has a market cap of $4.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.56.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.42 by ($0.08). Spire had a net margin of 9.70% and a return on equity of 7.88%. Analysts predict that Spire will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Spire Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were issued a dividend of $0.785 per share. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 11th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 76.03%.

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.