Spire (SR) Stock Analysis & Winston Score

Spire Inc. is a natural gas utility company that delivers gas to homes, businesses, and industries across the Midwest. It owns and operates underground pipelines and distribution networks, serving roughly 1.7 million customers primarily in Missouri, Alabama, and Mississippi. Spire is one of the largest publicly traded natural gas utilities in the United States. Spire makes most of its money by charging customers a regulated rate for delivering natural gas through its pipeline system. Because state regulators set the rates Spire can charge, its revenue is relatively stable and predictable — this is the core advantage of being a regulated utility. The company also has a smaller midstream segment that transports gas for other companies. Its main growth driver is expanding its pipeline infrastructure and passing those capital costs through to regulators for rate increases, while its key risk is rising interest rates, which increase borrowing costs for a company that regularly issues debt to fund infrastructure projects.