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

Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $86.8333.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on SR shares. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Spire from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Morgan Stanley set a $97.00 price target on shares of Spire in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Spire from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Spire in a research note on Monday.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Spire by 2.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,411,042 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $522,628,000 after purchasing an additional 123,584 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Spire by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,351,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $247,162,000 after buying an additional 61,851 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Spire by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,512,167 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $110,386,000 after buying an additional 22,296 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in shares of Spire by 7.5% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,220,171 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $99,468,000 after acquiring an additional 85,004 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its stake in shares of Spire by 32.8% in the second quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,030,625 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $75,225,000 after acquiring an additional 254,285 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Spire Stock Down 1.9%

SR stock opened at $82.29 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $85.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $78.86. Spire has a 12 month low of $64.44 and a 12 month high of $91.11. The company has a market cap of $4.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.70, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.66.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last issued its earnings results on Friday, November 14th. The utilities provider reported ($0.47) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.46) by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $334.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $439.56 million. Spire had a return on equity of 8.78% and a net margin of 10.96%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.54) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. Spire has set its FY 2027 guidance at 5.650-5.850 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 5.250-5.450 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Spire will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.825 per share. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 11th. This is a positive change from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.79. Spire’s dividend payout ratio is 71.36%.

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.