Unitil (NYSE:UTL) Research Coverage Started at Huntington

Huntington started coverage on shares of Unitil (NYSE:UTL) in a report released on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage issued an outperform rating and a $63.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock.

Separately, Weiss Ratings downgraded Unitil from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.67.

Unitil Trading Up 0.4%

NYSE UTL opened at $52.32 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $53.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.70. Unitil has a one year low of $45.17 and a one year high of $57.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market cap of $954.35 million, a PE ratio of 16.51 and a beta of 0.32.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.03. Unitil had a net margin of 9.49% and a return on equity of 9.53%. The business had revenue of $113.19 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $113.19 million. Analysts expect that Unitil will post 3.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Unitil Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th were paid a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 17th. Unitil’s payout ratio is currently 59.94%.

Institutional Trading of Unitil

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in UTL. Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings in shares of Unitil by 439.3% in the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 480 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 391 shares in the last quarter. Nykredit A S purchased a new position in Unitil during the second quarter worth about $59,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH purchased a new position in Unitil during the second quarter worth about $278,000. Corient Private Wealth LP lifted its position in Unitil by 5.6% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 15,508 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $817,000 after purchasing an additional 818 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi acquired a new stake in Unitil in the second quarter valued at about $641,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.76% of the company’s stock.

Unitil Company Profile

Unitil Corporation (NYSE: UTL) is a regulated public utility holding company that provides electric and natural gas distribution services to customers in New England. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company delivers energy to residential, commercial and industrial customers and maintains the local utility infrastructure needed to support those services.

Unitil Energy Systems provides electric distribution service in southeastern New Hampshire. Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light Company serves customers in north-central Massachusetts with electric and natural gas distribution, while Northern Utilities provides natural gas distribution in parts of New Hampshire and southern Maine.

Headquartered in Hampton, New Hampshire, Unitil traces its history to the consolidation of smaller New England utilities and has operated as a publicly traded utility company since 1984.