Spire (NYSE:SR) Upgraded by StockNews.com to Hold Rating

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Spire (NYSE:SR) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Friday.

SR has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Spire from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Spire from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $72.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Seven equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.40.

Spire Price Performance

Shares of SR stock opened at $74.61 on Friday. Spire has a twelve month low of $57.77 and a twelve 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $76.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $71.86. The company has a market cap of $4.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $3.60 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. Spire had a net margin of 9.70% and a return on equity of 7.88%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.45 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Spire will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $0.785 per share. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 11th. Spire’s payout ratio is 77.34%.

Institutional Trading of Spire

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Spire in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Spire by 87.2% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. bought a new position in shares of Spire during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in Spire in the 4th quarter worth $37,000. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its position in Spire by 431.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 627 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 509 shares during the period. 87.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.