Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for Spire (NYSE:SR) Stock Price

Spire (NYSE:SR) had its price objective boosted by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $91.00 to $99.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 14.49% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on SR. Bank of America upgraded shares of Spire from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $89.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Spire in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. BTIG Research raised Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Spire from $83.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Spire from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $86.75.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of SR traded up $1.65 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $86.47. 176,653 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 455,249. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.37. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $83.44 and its 200 day moving average is $77.83. Spire has a 1-year low of $64.44 and a 1-year high of $91.11. The stock has a market cap of $5.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.72.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 14th. The utilities provider reported ($0.47) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.46) by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $334.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $439.56 million. Spire had a return on equity of 8.66% and a net margin of 11.56%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.54) earnings per share. Spire has set its FY 2027 guidance at 5.650-5.850 EPS. FY 2026 guidance at 5.250-5.450 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Spire will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Spire

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Spire by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,411,042 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $522,628,000 after buying an additional 123,584 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Spire by 1.9% in the second 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 during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake 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 worth $110,386,000 after purchasing an additional 22,296 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted 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 valued at $82,856,000 after purchasing an additional 80,929 shares during the period. Finally, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. increased its holdings in shares of Spire by 32.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 254,285 shares during the period. 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.