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

Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have issued a hold recommendation, four have issued a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $81.3636.

SR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Spire from $81.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Spire in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $81.00 price target on Spire and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Spire from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th.

Spire Price Performance

NYSE:SR opened at $87.33 on Thursday. Spire has a one year low of $61.87 and a one year high of $87.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.37. The firm has a market cap of $5.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.86, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.69. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $78.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $76.15.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.01 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.10. Spire had a net margin of 11.56% and a return on equity of 8.66%. The company had revenue of $421.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $417.27 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.14) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. Spire has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.400-4.60 EPS. Research analysts expect that Spire will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Spire Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, September 11th were issued a $0.785 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 11th. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. Spire’s dividend payout ratio is presently 67.82%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in Spire by 1,957.1% in the 2nd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 432 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 411 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Spire in the 2nd quarter valued at about $38,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in Spire by 1,031.5% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 611 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 557 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Spire in the 1st quarter valued at about $50,000. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. purchased a new position in Spire in the 2nd quarter valued at about $48,000. 87.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.