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

Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $88.8182.

SR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Spire from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Bank of America raised shares of Spire from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $76.00 to $89.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Spire from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. BTIG Research upgraded shares of Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $93.00 target price on shares of Spire in a report on Wednesday.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of SR. Csenge Advisory Group raised its holdings in shares of Spire by 131.0% in the 3rd quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 37,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,049,000 after purchasing an additional 21,211 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Spire by 404.1% during the 2nd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,710 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $273,000 after purchasing an additional 2,974 shares in the last quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Spire during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,064,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Spire in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,092,000. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its position in Spire by 19.7% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 19,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,440,000 after buying an additional 3,241 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Spire Price Performance

SR stock opened at $82.69 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 0.32 and a quick ratio of 0.21. Spire has a 1 year low of $68.48 and a 1 year high of $91.11. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $83.80 and a 200 day moving average of $81.15. The company has a market cap of $4.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.79, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.67.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 14th. The utilities provider reported ($0.47) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.46) by ($0.01). Spire had a return on equity of 8.78% and a net margin of 10.96%.The business had revenue of $334.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $439.56 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.54) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Spire has set its FY 2027 guidance at 5.650-5.850 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 5.250-5.450 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Spire will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Spire Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 11th were given a dividend of $0.825 per share. This represents a $3.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.0%. This is a boost from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.79. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 11th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 75.00%.

Spire Company Profile

Spire Inc (NYSE: SR), formerly known as The Laclede Group, is a regulated natural gas distribution company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Through its three operating divisions—Spire Missouri, Spire Alabama and Spire Mississippi—the company delivers natural gas to more than 1.7 million residential, commercial and industrial customers. Spire’s service territory spans key markets in the central and southern United States, including metropolitan St. Louis, central Alabama and central Mississippi.

Founded in 1857 as the Laclede Gas Light Company, the business has grown through strategic acquisitions, notably Alabama Gas Corporation in 2013 and Mississippi Gas in 2016.