Mint Tower Capital Management B.V. Purchases Shares of 83,331 Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Mint Tower Capital Management B.V. purchased a new stake in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 83,331 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,197,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WTRG. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Essential Utilities in the fourth quarter valued at $154,176,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Essential Utilities by 587.6% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,071,929 shares of the company’s stock valued at $162,472,000 after purchasing an additional 3,479,762 shares in the last quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd bought a new stake in Essential Utilities in the third quarter valued at $128,137,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in Essential Utilities by 1,572.4% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,271,201 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,212,000 after purchasing an additional 1,195,189 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Essential Utilities by 121.8% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,591,706 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,697,000 after purchasing an additional 873,990 shares in the last quarter. 74.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WTRG has been the subject of several recent research reports. Argus upgraded Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Essential Utilities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $41.00 to $43.00 in a report on Friday, May 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.80.

Essential Utilities Trading Down 1.3%

NYSE:WTRG opened at $37.08 on Friday. 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 50-day moving average of $38.37 and a 200-day moving average of $38.85. The company has a market cap of $10.52 billion, a PE ratio of 18.82 and a beta of 0.66. Essential Utilities Inc. has a one year low of $36.10 and a one year high of $42.37.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.07). Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 8.34% and a net margin of 21.82%.The company had revenue of $861.76 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $782.90 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.03 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.22 EPS 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.