Analysts Set Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) Target Price at $43.20

Shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the nine analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $42.40.

Several research analysts have recently commented on WTRG shares. UBS Group set a $41.00 price target on Essential Utilities in a research report on Thursday. Argus upgraded Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Essential Utilities by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,246,084 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,246,719,000 after buying an additional 838,450 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Essential Utilities by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,833,175 shares of the company’s stock worth $530,641,000 after buying an additional 241,176 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in Essential Utilities by 25.5% during the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,972,565 shares of the company’s stock worth $354,057,000 after buying an additional 1,822,306 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its stake in Essential Utilities by 33.4% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 6,335,695 shares of the company’s stock worth $243,023,000 after buying an additional 1,586,622 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Essential Utilities by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,233,715 shares of the company’s stock worth $200,197,000 after buying an additional 120,947 shares during the last quarter. 74.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Essential Utilities Trading Down 0.1%

WTRG opened at $37.43 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $10.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.00 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. Essential Utilities has a 12 month low of $36.32 and a 12 month high of $42.37. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $39.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $39.31.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $861.76 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $782.90 million. Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 8.34% and a net margin of 21.82%.The company’s revenue was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.03 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Essential Utilities will post 2.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essential Utilities Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.3426 per share. This represents a $1.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 12th. Essential Utilities’s payout ratio is 69.54%.

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.