Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Acquires New Position in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund acquired a new stake in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 68,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,621,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WTRG. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new stake in Essential Utilities in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $638,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 928 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its position 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 in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth boosted its position in Essential Utilities by 4.9% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 22,322 shares of the company’s stock valued at $882,000 after buying an additional 1,044 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on WTRG shares. UBS Group upgraded shares of Essential Utilities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $41.00 to $43.00 in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Argus upgraded shares of Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Two equities research 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 issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Essential Utilities presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.80.

Essential Utilities Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WTRG opened at $37.50 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $10.64 billion, a PE ratio of 19.03 and a beta of 0.66. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $38.50 and its 200-day moving average is $38.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.95. Essential Utilities Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.10 and a 52 week high of $42.37.

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

Essential Utilities Profile

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.