Nuance Investments LLC Takes $4.84 Million Position in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Nuance Investments LLC acquired a new position in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 126,035 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,835,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WTRG. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new position in shares of Essential Utilities in the 4th quarter valued at about $638,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 7.8% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 12,861 shares of the company’s stock valued at $508,000 after acquiring an additional 928 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Essential Utilities by 1.8% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 29,674 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,173,000 after buying an additional 530 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Essential Utilities by 122.7% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 943,797 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,308,000 after buying an additional 519,933 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth grew its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 4.9% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 22,322 shares of the company’s stock worth $882,000 after buying an additional 1,044 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Essential Utilities Price Performance

NYSE WTRG opened at $37.40 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.61 billion, a PE ratio of 18.99 and a beta of 0.66. Essential Utilities Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.10 and a 12 month high of $42.37. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.91.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $861.76 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $782.90 million. Essential Utilities had a net margin of 21.82% and a return on equity of 8.34%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.03 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on WTRG. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. UBS Group raised Essential Utilities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $41.00 to $43.00 in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Argus upgraded Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.80.

About Essential Utilities

Essential Utilities, Inc, formerly known as Aqua America, is a publicly traded water and natural gas utility holding company. Through its regulated water and wastewater subsidiaries, the company provides essential water services to residential, commercial and industrial customers. In addition, Essential Utilities delivers natural gas distribution services in Pennsylvania through its Peoples Gas subsidiary, offering integrated utility solutions under a unified corporate framework.

The company traces its roots to the Philadelphia Suburban Water Company, founded in 1886 to serve growing communities outside Philadelphia.