Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Receives $63.83 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) have received an average rating of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $64.94.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on SR. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Spire from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Spire from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th.

Insider Activity at Spire

In other Spire news, VP Gerard J. Gorla sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.82, for a total transaction of $32,410.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 7,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $473,899.02. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Spire news, VP Gerard J. Gorla sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.82, for a total transaction of $32,410.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 7,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $473,899.02. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Maria V. Fogarty sold 6,590 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was 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 owns 9,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $638,470. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.86% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Spire

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SR. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Spire by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,626,863 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $345,321,000 after buying an additional 65,486 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Spire by 8.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 944,387 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $57,351,000 after acquiring an additional 72,119 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Spire by 11.0% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 698,819 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $42,439,000 after acquiring an additional 69,020 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in Spire by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 644,525 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $39,142,000 after purchasing an additional 10,562 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in Spire by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 501,852 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,477,000 after purchasing an additional 2,598 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Spire Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE:SR opened at $63.90 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $65.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $62.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.69 billion, a PE ratio of 16.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.52. Spire has a 12 month low of $54.15 and a 12 month high of $68.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.35.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last announced its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $414.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $313.86 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.42) EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Spire will post 4.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 11th were paid a $0.755 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 11th. This represents a $3.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.73%. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.