Spire Benefits From Infrastructure Upgrades & Expanding Customer Base

Spire Inc. SR continues to benefit from its systematic capital investments to strengthen infrastructure and improve service reliability. The company also benefits from the expanding natural gas customer base. 

However, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company faces risks related to its dependence on its units to meet all financial needs.

Factors Acting in Favor of SR

Spire makes consistent investments to upgrade and maintain its existing infrastructure as well as expand operations. Capital expenditures for fiscal 2025 are expected to be $840 million, up from the previous guidance of $790 million. The higher capital expenditures include a $15 million increase at Spire Missouri and a $35 million increase at Midstream primarily for the storage expansion project.

The company also invested nearly $103 million in installing advanced meters so far in the fiscal year. Spire continues to install ultrasonic meters across utilities to improve customer experience. SR installed more than 350,000 advanced meters in fiscal 2024, bringing the total number of customers benefiting from this technology to 850,000.

Spire is actively expanding its customer base through acquisitions. This strategy enables the company to expand its geographic reach and customer base, while enhancing its existing infrastructure. Spire’s acquisition of MoGas and Omega pipeline systems, which added nearly 263 miles of interstate natural gas pipelines to its network, helps serve its growing customer base in St. Louis, MO.

Challenges Faced by SR

Spire is a holding company with no significant assets, which makes it dependent on its operating units to meet its financial obligations. Also, its ability to pay out dividends depends on its subsidiaries’ capacity to generate sufficient net income and cash flows to disburse dividends and repay loans.

SR’s financial performance may suffer if there is a significant disruption in the transmission and storage capacity of interstate natural gas pipelines during times of high demand.

SR Stock’s Price Performance

In the past six months, shares of the company have risen 12.7% compared with the industry’s 3.1% growth.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the same industry are UGI Corporation UGI, sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and Atmos Energy ATO and ONE Gas OGS, both holding a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

UGI’s long-term (three to five year) earnings growth rate is 5.2%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2025 EPS indicates a year-over-year improvement of 2.3%.

ATO’s long-term earnings growth rate is 7.19%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2025 EPS indicates a year-over-year improvement of 6%.

OGS’ long-term earnings growth rate is 5.56%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 EPS indicates a year-over-year improvement of 9.7%.

 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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