Spire Dumps Gas Marketing Business To Boost Focus

Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) shares are up during Monday’s premarket session. The company announced a deal to sell its gas marketing business to Boardwalk Pipelines for $215 million in cash. The company expects the sale to close in the third fiscal quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals. Spire will use proceeds from this transaction to partially fund the acquisition of Piedmont Natural Gas business and for general corporate purposes. Piedmont Natural Gas Buyout In July 2025, Spire disclosed a deal with Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE:DUK) to buy its Piedmont Natural Gas Tennessee local distribution company business for $2.48 billion in cash. The deal includes nearly 3,800 miles of distribution and transmission pipelines and a liquefied natural gas facility. The company expects the acquisition to close in the first calendar quarter of 2026. Moreover, the company disclosed that it is assessing a potential divestment of its natural gas storage assets to help finance this acquisition. Guidance Update In addition, Spire reaffirmed its fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS guidance of $5.25–$5.45 (versus consensus of $5.16). This reflects a full year of earnings from its gas storage facilities, excluding the results from the pending acquisition. The updated guidance indicates an adjustment from prior expectations, with fiscal 2027 adjusted EPS guidance now projected to be in the range of $5.40–$5.60 (versus $5.65–$5.85 prior) compared to the consensus of $5.74. Also, Spire reiterated long-term adjusted EPS growth of 5%-7%. Technical Analysis The stock is currently trading 3.5% above its 20-day simple moving average (SMA) and 8.8% above its 100-day SMA, demonstrating longer-term strength. Shares have increased 15.88% over the past 12 months and are currently positioned closer to their 52-week highs than lows. The RSI is at 52.16, which is considered neutral territory. Meanwhile, MACD is at 0.4057, below its signal line at 0.6937, indicating bearish pressure on the stock. The combination of neutral RSI and bearish MACD suggests mixed momentum. Key Resistance: $94.50 Key Support: $81.50 Sector Performance Spire is outperforming its sector, with a current gain of 4.76% compared to the Energy sector’s 1.02% increase. The Energy sector is currently ranked 2 out of 11 sectors, reflecting strong performance over the past 30 days, where it has gained 9.68%. Earnings & Analyst Outlook Spire is slated to provide its next financial update on April 29, 2026 (estimated). EPS Estimate: $3.76 (Up from $3.60) Revenue Estimate: $1.14 billion (Up from $1.05 billion) Valuation: P/E of 19.8x (Indicates fair valuation) Analyst Consensus & Recent Actions: The stock carries a Hold Rating with an average price target of $82.23. Recent analyst moves include: Stifel: Hold (Raises Target to $87.00) (January 28) UBS: Buy (Raises Target to $100.00) (December 17, 2025) Morgan Stanley: Upgraded to Overweight (Lowers Target to $92.00) (December 16, 2025) Top ETF Exposure VictoryShares US Small Mid Cap Value Momentum ETF (NASDAQ:USVM): 0.68% Weight Invesco S&P MidCap Low Volatility ETF (NYSE:XMLV): 1.64% Weight Timothy Plan US Small Cap Core ETF (NYSE:TPSC): 0.40% Weight Significance: Because SR carries meaningful weight in these funds, any significant inflows or outflows for these ETFs will likely force automatic buying or selling of the stock. SR Stock Price Activity: Spire shares were up 4.76% at $95.00 during premarket trading on Monday, according to Benzinga Pro data. Photo by sdf_qwe via Shutterstock