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Spire (SR) Rewards Shareholders With 4.9% Dividend Hike
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Spire Inc. (SR - Free Report) announced that its board of directors approved a 4.9% increase in the quarterly dividend rate. The revised dividend amount will be 75.5 cents per share. The company’s new annualized dividend rate is $3.02 and the current dividend yield is 5.27%, better than its industry average of 3.87%.
Spire has been paying dividends to its shareholders since 1946. Courtesy of its stable performance, Spire’s management has been increasing the annual dividend rate over the past two decades. The current dividend increase marks the company's 21st consecutive year of increasing its common stock dividend on an annualized basis.
Can Spire Sustain Dividend Hikes?
Spire’s capital investment plan, widespread pipelines and increasing demand from its growing natural gas customer base are expected to drive its performance.
The company has been registering a consistent increase in the average number of gas utility customer volumes over the past few years. At the end of fiscal 2021, its customer volumes inched up 0.7% year over year and in fiscal 2022, the same increased by 0.4% year over year. The trend is expected to continue over the next few years.
Spire has plans to invest in the range of $7 billion in different projects during the 2023-2032 period. These investments will be directed at modernizing and strengthening the existing infrastructure of the company, enabling it to serve its expanding customer base more effectively.
The company is also investing in technological upgrades. The usage of new technology is not only assisting it to improve services but also helping it lower operating costs, thereby benefiting customers.
Spire currently manages more than 60,000 miles of pipelines and continues to install ultrasonic meters across utilities to improve customer experience. The company has upgraded 440,000 meters to date. All these initiatives will keep on adding new customers and retaining old customers, boosting demand for its services and allowing the company to generate funds for continuous dividend payments.
Other Utilities Sharing Profits
Spire is not the only utility company that has decided to share more profits with shareholders. Earlier this year, the board of directors of Xcel Energy (XEL - Free Report) , Hawaiian Electric Industries (HE - Free Report) and NiSource (NI - Free Report) approved hikes of 6.6%, 2.9% and 6%, respectively. Consistent performance and dividend-paying capability make the utilities a bonds substitute.
The current dividend yields of Xcel Energy, Hawaiian Electric and Ni Source are 3.51%, 12.4% and 4%, respectively, each faring better than the Zacks S&P 500 Composite’s average of 1.72%.
Price Movement
In the past three months, SR’s shares have lost narrower than the industry it belongs to.
Image: Bigstock
Spire (SR) Rewards Shareholders With 4.9% Dividend Hike
Spire Inc. (SR - Free Report) announced that its board of directors approved a 4.9% increase in the quarterly dividend rate. The revised dividend amount will be 75.5 cents per share. The company’s new annualized dividend rate is $3.02 and the current dividend yield is 5.27%, better than its industry average of 3.87%.
Spire has been paying dividends to its shareholders since 1946. Courtesy of its stable performance, Spire’s management has been increasing the annual dividend rate over the past two decades. The current dividend increase marks the company's 21st consecutive year of increasing its common stock dividend on an annualized basis.
Can Spire Sustain Dividend Hikes?
Spire’s capital investment plan, widespread pipelines and increasing demand from its growing natural gas customer base are expected to drive its performance.
The company has been registering a consistent increase in the average number of gas utility customer volumes over the past few years. At the end of fiscal 2021, its customer volumes inched up 0.7% year over year and in fiscal 2022, the same increased by 0.4% year over year. The trend is expected to continue over the next few years.
Spire has plans to invest in the range of $7 billion in different projects during the 2023-2032 period. These investments will be directed at modernizing and strengthening the existing infrastructure of the company, enabling it to serve its expanding customer base more effectively.
The company is also investing in technological upgrades. The usage of new technology is not only assisting it to improve services but also helping it lower operating costs, thereby benefiting customers.
Spire currently manages more than 60,000 miles of pipelines and continues to install ultrasonic meters across utilities to improve customer experience. The company has upgraded 440,000 meters to date. All these initiatives will keep on adding new customers and retaining old customers, boosting demand for its services and allowing the company to generate funds for continuous dividend payments.
Other Utilities Sharing Profits
Spire is not the only utility company that has decided to share more profits with shareholders. Earlier this year, the board of directors of Xcel Energy (XEL - Free Report) , Hawaiian Electric Industries (HE - Free Report) and NiSource (NI - Free Report) approved hikes of 6.6%, 2.9% and 6%, respectively. Consistent performance and dividend-paying capability make the utilities a bonds substitute.
The current dividend yields of Xcel Energy, Hawaiian Electric and Ni Source are 3.51%, 12.4% and 4%, respectively, each faring better than the Zacks S&P 500 Composite’s average of 1.72%.
Price Movement
In the past three months, SR’s shares have lost narrower than the industry it belongs to.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Zacks Rank
Spire currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.