Morgan Stanley Lowers Spire (NYSE:SR) Price Target to $75.00

Spire (NYSE:SR) had its price target lowered by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $77.00 to $75.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target indicates a potential upside of 3.38% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms also recently commented on SR. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Spire from $70.00 to $69.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. UBS Group lifted their price target on Spire from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH lowered Spire from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $65.50 to $60.50 in a report on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com cut Spire from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Spire from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.06.

Spire Stock Performance

SR opened at $72.55 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $65.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $63.84. Spire has a 52-week low of $56.36 and a 52-week high of $72.71.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Spire

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Spire during the second quarter valued at $2,233,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Spire by 197.4% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 162,195 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,850,000 after acquiring an additional 107,662 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Spire during the 3rd quarter valued at about $787,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Spire by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,626,863 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $345,321,000 after purchasing an additional 65,486 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Spire by 116.2% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 28,025 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,886,000 after purchasing an additional 15,060 shares during the period. 87.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.