BTIG Research Upgrades Spire (NYSE:SR) to Strong-Buy

Spire (NYSE:SR) was upgraded by investment analysts at BTIG Research to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

SR has been the subject of several other reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Spire in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $81.00 target price on shares of Spire and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $76.00 price objective (down previously from $81.00) on shares of Spire in a research report on Friday, August 15th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Spire from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on Spire from $83.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $85.00.

Spire Stock Performance

NYSE:SR opened at $87.03 on Wednesday. Spire has a 1 year low of $61.87 and a 1 year high of $87.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.27. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $79.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $76.30. The company has a market capitalization of $5.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.69.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.10. The company had revenue of $421.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $417.27 million. Spire had a return on equity of 8.66% and a net margin of 11.56%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.14) EPS. Spire has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.400-4.60 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Spire will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Spire

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SR. State Street Corp boosted its position in Spire by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,351,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $247,162,000 after acquiring an additional 61,851 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Spire by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,512,167 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $110,386,000 after acquiring an additional 22,296 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in Spire by 7.7% in the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,135,167 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $82,856,000 after buying an additional 80,929 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its stake in shares of Spire by 32.8% in the second quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,030,625 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $75,225,000 after acquiring an additional 254,285 shares during the period. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its position in Spire by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,003,262 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $81,786,000 after purchasing an additional 29,135 shares during the period. 87.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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 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.