Analysts Set Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Price Target at $68.06

Shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have issued a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $69.93.

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Spire from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Spire from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Spire from $70.00 to $69.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Spire from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Spire from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st.

Spire Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE SR opened at $73.19 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. Spire has a one year low of $56.36 and a one year high of $73.64. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $66.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $64.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.23 billion, a PE ratio of 16.98, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.52.

Spire Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $3.14 per share. This is a positive change from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $12.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 17.16%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 70.07%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SR. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 65,486 shares during the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co increased its stake in Spire by 6.6% during the first quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 88,763 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,450,000 after acquiring an additional 5,513 shares during the period. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in Spire in the first quarter worth about $47,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in Spire during the first quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Spire by 7.1% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,218 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,916,000 after purchasing an additional 2,070 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

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.