Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Plans $0.79 Quarterly Dividend

Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 24th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of 0.785 per share by the utilities provider on Wednesday, July 2nd. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 11th.

Spire has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 22 consecutive years. Spire has a dividend payout ratio of 62.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Spire to earn $4.88 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.14 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 64.3%.

Spire Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:SR opened at $77.01 on Friday. Spire has a 12-month low of $57.77 and a 12-month 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 firm has a market capitalization of $4.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.56. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $76.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $71.10.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last announced 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 net margin of 9.70% and a return on equity of 7.88%. On average, equities analysts expect that Spire will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on SR. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Spire from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Spire from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock 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 report on Monday, March 17th. 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. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Spire presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $76.70.

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.