Intech Investment Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Intech Investment Management LLC cut its stake in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 69.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 14,224 shares of the company’s stock after selling 32,110 shares during the quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Essential Utilities were worth $546,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,246,084 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,246,719,000 after purchasing an additional 838,450 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,591,999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $542,321,000 after purchasing an additional 641,743 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Essential Utilities by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,233,715 shares of the company’s stock worth $200,197,000 after buying an additional 120,947 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its holdings in Essential Utilities by 19.5% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,539,977 shares of the company’s stock worth $174,163,000 after buying an additional 741,587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Essential Utilities by 19.0% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,149,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $159,158,000 after purchasing an additional 662,334 shares during the last quarter. 74.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on WTRG shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. UBS Group raised Essential Utilities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $41.00 to $43.00 in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note 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 issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.80.

Essential Utilities Stock Up 2.3%

WTRG stock opened at $37.50 on Wednesday. Essential Utilities Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.10 and a 12 month high of $42.37. The firm has a market cap of $10.64 billion, a PE ratio of 19.03 and a beta of 0.66. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last released its quarterly 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). Essential Utilities had a net margin of 21.82% and a return on equity of 8.34%. The firm had revenue of $861.76 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $782.90 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.03 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.