Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 23,735 Shares of Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System cut its position in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 8.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 260,270 shares of the company’s stock after selling 23,735 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System owned 0.09% of Essential Utilities worth $10,200,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WTRG. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Essential Utilities in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,280,829,000. State Street Corp grew its position in Essential Utilities by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,119,170 shares of the company’s stock worth $502,595,000 after acquiring an additional 687,688 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in Essential Utilities during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $134,247,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Essential Utilities by 1,224.0% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,233,682 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,728,000 after purchasing an additional 2,989,455 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Essential Utilities by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,881,490 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,049,000 after purchasing an additional 106,252 shares in the last quarter. 74.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on WTRG shares. UBS Group cut their price objective on Essential Utilities from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 16th. Barclays increased their target price on Essential Utilities from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Essential Utilities from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, Argus lifted their price target on Essential Utilities from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.75.

Essential Utilities Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE WTRG opened at $44.93 on Thursday. Essential Utilities Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.10 and a 1-year high of $46.36. The company has a 50-day moving average of $41.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $39.65. The company has a market cap of $12.87 billion, a PE ratio of 22.58, a P/E/G ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 3rd. The company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $508.26 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $450.44 million. Essential Utilities had a net margin of 21.79% and a return on equity of 8.36%. Essential Utilities’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essential Utilities Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 10th will be given a dividend of $0.3606 per share. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 10th. Essential Utilities’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 72.36%.

Essential Utilities Profile

Essential Utilities, Inc. is a regulated utility company that provides water and wastewater services through its Aqua operations and natural gas distribution through Peoples Natural Gas. Its services include treating and delivering drinking water, collecting and treating wastewater, and supplying natural gas to homes and businesses. The company traces its water utility roots to the Springfield Water Company, founded in Pennsylvania in 1886. It adopted the Essential Utilities name in 2020, following its acquisition of Peoples Natural Gas and the expansion of its business beyond water and wastewater services.