Spire (NYSE:SR) Rating Lowered to Sell at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Spire (NYSE:SR) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report released on Friday.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on SR. Mizuho raised shares of Spire from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $65.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Spire from $70.00 to $69.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Spire in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price target on the stock. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH lowered shares of Spire from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $65.50 to $60.50 in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.50.

Spire Stock Performance

NYSE:SR opened at $73.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.30. Spire has a 1-year low of $57.27 and a 1-year high of $74.50. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $69.05 and a two-hundred day moving average of $67.27. The stock has a market cap of $4.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.91, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.58.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.42 by ($0.08). Spire had a return on equity of 7.88% and a net margin of 9.70%. On average, research analysts expect that Spire will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be paid a $0.785 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.25%. Spire’s payout ratio is currently 76.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Spire

In other Spire news, Treasurer Adam W. Woodard sold 1,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.47, for a total value of $77,590.50. Following the sale, the treasurer now owns 2,587 shares in the company, valued at approximately $174,544.89. This trade represents a 30.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Paul D. Koonce purchased 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $73.61 per share, for a total transaction of $73,610.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 2,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $178,504.25. This trade represents a 70.18 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 2.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Spire during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Spire during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Spire by 87.2% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the period. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Spire during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Spire by 1,318.4% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 539 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 501 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

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.