Spire (NYSE:SR) Rating Lowered to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Spire (NYSE:SR) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report report published on Friday morning.

SR has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Spire from $77.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus cut 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. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Spire from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH downgraded shares of Spire from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $65.50 to $60.50 in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Spire from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Spire currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.93.

Spire Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE:SR opened at $73.19 on Friday. Spire has a 12 month low of $56.36 and a 12 month high of $73.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $66.49 and its 200 day moving average is $64.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.23 billion, a PE ratio of 16.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.52.

Spire Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a $3.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $12.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 17.16%. This is a boost from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. Spire’s dividend payout ratio is presently 70.07%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Spire

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Spire by 7.1% in the 1st 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. Comerica Bank raised its position in Spire by 12.1% in the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 58,063 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,563,000 after purchasing an additional 6,284 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Spire in the first quarter worth about $35,000. Burney Co. lifted its position in Spire by 8.9% in the first quarter. Burney Co. now owns 3,866 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $237,000 after purchasing an additional 315 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners boosted its stake in shares of Spire by 132.4% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 38,521 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,364,000 after purchasing an additional 21,948 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.