ProShare Advisors LLC Decreases Holdings in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

ProShare Advisors LLC decreased its stake in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 14.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 829,432 shares of the company’s stock after selling 137,253 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.29% of Essential Utilities worth $31,817,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new stake in Essential Utilities during the 4th quarter worth approximately $638,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position 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 lifted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 530 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 122.7% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 943,797 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,308,000 after acquiring an additional 519,933 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 1,044 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on WTRG. Argus raised Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. UBS Group set a $41.00 target price on shares of Essential Utilities in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $42.40.

Essential Utilities Price Performance

WTRG stock opened at $36.57 on Thursday. Essential Utilities Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.32 and a 1 year high of $42.37. 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 $10.37 billion, a PE ratio of 18.56 and a beta of 0.67. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.09.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.83 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 analysts’ expectations of $782.90 million. Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 8.34% and a net margin of 21.82%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.03 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.