Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation, one has assigned a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $43.20.

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Argus raised Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Barclays set a $38.00 target price on shares of Essential Utilities and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a research note on Monday, December 29th.

Institutional Trading of Essential Utilities

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. lifted its stake in Essential Utilities by 26.1% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 13,896 shares of the company’s stock worth $533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,873 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 45,517 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,747,000 after buying an additional 4,351 shares in the last quarter. S Harris Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Essential Utilities in the 4th quarter valued at $253,000. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Essential Utilities in the 4th quarter valued at $6,963,000. Finally, Compound Planning Inc. lifted its stake in Essential Utilities by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Compound Planning Inc. now owns 11,613 shares of the company’s stock worth $445,000 after acquiring an additional 803 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Essential Utilities Trading Down 2.7%

Shares of Essential Utilities stock opened at $39.56 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $39.79 and a 200 day moving average of $39.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.90 and a beta of 0.78. Essential Utilities has a fifty-two week low of $36.32 and a fifty-two week high of $42.37.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.11. Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 9.18% and a net margin of 24.91%.The company had revenue of $699.11 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $611.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.67 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Essential Utilities will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Essential Utilities Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be given a dividend of $0.3426 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 12th. This represents a $1.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Essential Utilities’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.99%.

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.