Spire (NYSE:SR) Given New $64.00 Price Target at Wells Fargo & Company

Spire (NYSE:SR) had its target price reduced by Wells Fargo & Company from $67.00 to $64.00 in a research report report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on SR. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Spire from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 6th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of Spire from $65.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Monday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Spire from $72.00 to $66.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 25th. StockNews.com upgraded Spire to a sell rating in a report on Friday, October 13th. Finally, Mizuho raised Spire from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $71.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Friday, September 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $63.88.

Spire Price Performance

SR opened at $60.95 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.83, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $57.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $61.34. Spire has a 12-month low of $53.77 and a 12-month high of $75.83.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 16th. The utilities provider reported ($0.78) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.64) by ($0.14). Spire had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 8.16%. The firm had revenue of $310.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $337.48 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.66) earnings per share. Spire’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Spire will post 4.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Spire Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.755 per share. This represents a $3.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.95%. This is a positive change from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 8th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Spire

In other Spire news, Treasurer Adam W. Woodard bought 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 1st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $58.70 per share, with a total value of $58,700.00. Following the transaction, the treasurer now directly owns 4,190 shares in the company, valued at approximately $245,953. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Spire news, Treasurer Adam W. Woodard sold 779 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.42, for a total value of $47,067.18. Following the sale, the treasurer now directly owns 1,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $88,817.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Treasurer Adam W. Woodard purchased 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 1st. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $58.70 per share, for a total transaction of $58,700.00. Following the acquisition, the treasurer now owns 4,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $245,953. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought a total of 4,600 shares of company stock valued at $184,717 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Spire by 70,596.2% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,264,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $293,646,000 after buying an additional 4,258,360 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Spire by 126.0% during the third quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,501,638 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $198,123,000 after buying an additional 1,951,969 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Spire by 107.7% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,431,260 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $80,981,000 after purchasing an additional 742,231 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Spire during the first quarter valued at $149,000. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Spire by 34.1% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,252,151 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $163,065,000 after purchasing an additional 572,381 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Spire Company Profile

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 two segments, Gas Utility and Gas Marketing. It is also involved in the marketing of natural gas.