Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eight brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $63.83.

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Spire from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price 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.

Insider Transactions at Spire

In related news, Director Maria V. Fogarty sold 6,590 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now directly owns 9,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $638,470. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, VP Gerard J. Gorla sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were 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 trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Maria V. Fogarty sold 6,590 shares of Spire 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 transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.86% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Spire

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its stake in Spire by 592.5% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 46,338 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,889,000 after acquiring an additional 39,647 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Spire by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 14,970 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $934,000 after purchasing an additional 1,629 shares during the last quarter. Dean Capital Management boosted its position in Spire by 14.3% during the 4th quarter. Dean Capital Management now owns 36,787 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,293,000 after purchasing an additional 4,595 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Spire by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 186,652 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,636,000 after buying an additional 7,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tortoise Index Solutions LLC grew its stake in Spire by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Tortoise Index Solutions LLC now owns 103,790 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,470,000 after buying an additional 5,001 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of SR stock opened at $65.12 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The company has a market cap of $3.76 billion, a PE ratio of 16.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.52. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $65.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.59. Spire has a 52 week low of $54.15 and a 52 week high of $68.02.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported ($0.14) 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 company had revenue of $414.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $313.86 million. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.42) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Spire will post 4.23 EPS for the current year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 11th were issued a dividend of $0.755 per share. This represents a $3.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.64%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 11th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio is currently 76.26%.

About Spire

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.