Brokerages Set Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) PT at $94.00

Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twelve research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $94.00.

SR has been the topic of several research reports. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Spire in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $85.00 target price (up from $84.00) on shares of Spire in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Spire from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. BTIG Research set a $101.00 price target on shares of Spire in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Spire from $96.00 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 21st.

Insider Transactions at Spire

In other Spire news, Director Paul Koonce acquired 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 11th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $78.46 per share, for a total transaction of $39,230.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 8,000 shares in the company, valued at $627,680. This represents a 6.67% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Spire

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Spire during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. MV Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Spire during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. SHP Wealth Management bought a new position in Spire during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Spire in the first quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Spire by 40.3% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 519 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Spire Stock Performance

SR opened at $83.54 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.37. Spire has a 52-week low of $74.49 and a 52-week high of $95.31. The business’s fifty day moving average is $81.69 and its 200-day moving average is $85.41.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported ($0.26) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.32) by $0.06. The company had revenue of $420.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $394.62 million. Spire had a net margin of 21.48% and a return on equity of 8.65%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.01 EPS. Spire has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.900-4.100 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Spire will post 4.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Spire Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be paid a $0.825 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. This represents a $3.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.0%. Spire’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.79%.

About Spire

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.