JPMorgan Chase & Co. Upgrades Spire (NYSE:SR) to Overweight

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Spire (NYSE:SR) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research report released on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $85.00 target price on the utilities provider’s stock, up from their previous target price of $72.00.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on SR. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Spire from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Spire in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 target price for the company. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Spire from $70.00 to $69.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott started coverage on shares of Spire in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $73.00 target price for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $76.00.

Spire Stock Performance

Shares of SR stock opened at $77.37 on Thursday. Spire has a 12 month low of $57.27 and a 12 month high of $78.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.53. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $73.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $69.08.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by ($0.08). Spire had a return on equity of 7.88% and a net margin of 9.70%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Spire will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Spire Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.785 per share. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.06%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. Spire’s dividend payout ratio is presently 76.03%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Spire by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,168,221 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $418,390,000 after purchasing an additional 46,434 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Spire by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,154,230 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $214,535,000 after purchasing an additional 44,969 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Spire by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,385,452 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $93,244,000 after purchasing an additional 71,798 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Spire by 29.0% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,022,870 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $69,381,000 after purchasing an additional 229,662 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Spire by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,002,938 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $68,028,000 after purchasing an additional 15,835 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.