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Here's Why You Should Add Spire (SR) to Your Portfolio Now

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Earnings estimates for Spire Inc. (SR - Free Report) have been revised upward in the past 30 days, reflecting analysts’ optimism on the stock. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 and 2020 earnings has moved up 0.3% and 0.5% to $3.75 and $3.92 per share during the said period, respectively.

Let’s focus on the factors that make the stockan appropriate pick at the moment.

Zacks Rank & VGM Score

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The stock has an impressive VGM Score of B. Here V stands for Value, G for Growth and M for Momentum with the score being a weighted combination of all three factors. Back tested results show that stocks with a favorable VGM Score of A or B coupled with a bullish Zacks Rank are the best investment options.

Price Performance

In the past 12 months, shares of Spire have rallied 26.6% compared with the industry’s gain of 7.2%.

 

Earnings Surprise History & Long-Term Growth

The company’s average last four-quarter positive earnings surprise is 7.69%. The company’s long-term (3 to 5 years) earnings growth is pegged at 4.93%.

Capital Investment Plans

The company increased capital expenditure plan for 2019 to $740 million from $499 million of 2018.Spire also increased capital expenditure target for 2019-2023 period to $2.8 billion from $2.6 billion of 2019-2022 period.

Dividend Yield

The company has been paying dividend consistently for 74 years and increased the same for 16 consecutive years.

Currently, the company has a dividend yield of 2.37% compared with the Zacks S&P 500 Composite’s 1.96%.

Other Key Picks

Some other top-ranked stocks from the same industry are ONEOK, Inc (OKE - Free Report) , ONE Gas, Inc. (OGS - Free Report) and National Fuel Gas Co. (NFG - Free Report) , each holding a Zacks Rank of 2.

ONEOK pulled off an average positive earnings surprise of 3.17% in the last four quarters. The company’s long-term earnings growth is pegged at 11.30%.

ONE Gas pulled off an average positive earnings surprise of 8.29% in the last four quarters. The company’s long-term earnings growth is pegged at 5.90%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 earnings for National Fuel Gas has moved up 7% to $3.55 per share in the past 60 days. The company’s long-term earnings growth is pegged at 2.80%.

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