Unitil (NYSE:UTL) Sets New 52-Week High – Here’s Why

Unitil Corporation (NYSE:UTL) shares reached a new 52-week high on Thursday. The stock traded as high as $57.95 and last traded at $57.9650, with a volume of 7,243 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $56.54.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on UTL. Huntington started coverage on Unitil in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “strong-buy” rating for the company. Weiss Ratings lowered Unitil from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Unitil currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $58.67.

Unitil Stock Up 0.5%

The stock has a market capitalization of $1.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.27 and a beta of 0.27. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $53.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.45.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 2nd. The utilities provider reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.06) by $0.02. The business had revenue of $112.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $113.11 million. Unitil had a return on equity of 9.19% and a net margin of 9.16%. As a group, research analysts predict that Unitil Corporation will post 3.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Unitil Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.4750 per share. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 13th. Unitil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.94%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Unitil

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Simplex Trading LLC lifted its position in shares of Unitil by 144.3% during the 3rd quarter. Simplex Trading LLC now owns 733 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 433 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its stake in Unitil by 13.4% in the third quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 5,556 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $282,000 after buying an additional 655 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Unitil by 35.4% in the third quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 181,808 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,229,000 after buying an additional 47,499 shares in the last quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. grew its position in Unitil by 37.8% in the third quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 6,991 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $355,000 after acquiring an additional 1,916 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Summit Global Investments bought a new position in Unitil in the third quarter valued at about $257,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.76% of the company’s stock.

Unitil Company Profile

Unitil Corporation is a regulated public utility holding company that delivers electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Its operations focus primarily on the distribution of energy through local utility networks rather than the production of electricity or natural gas.

Through its operating subsidiaries, Unitil provides electric distribution service in portions of New Hampshire and Massachusetts and natural gas distribution service in parts of southern New Hampshire and central Massachusetts.