Texas Permanent School Fund Lowers Stock Position in Unitil Co. (NYSE:UTL)

Texas Permanent School Fund trimmed its holdings in shares of Unitil Co. (NYSE:UTL – Get Rating) by 6.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 10,784 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 752 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund’s holdings in Unitil were worth $554,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of UTL. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Unitil by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,224,631 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $56,885,000 after purchasing an additional 50,451 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Unitil by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 628,244 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,182,000 after acquiring an additional 11,222 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Unitil by 0.6% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 427,245 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $19,846,000 after purchasing an additional 2,642 shares during the last quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC raised its position in Unitil by 10.1% during the third quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 311,761 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,481,000 after acquiring an additional 28,501 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Unitil by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 270,247 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,480,000 after purchasing an additional 3,948 shares in the last quarter. 74.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

UTL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Unitil in a report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Unitil from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 17th.

Unitil Price Performance

UTL stock opened at $56.10 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $902.65 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.53. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $53.96. Unitil Co. has a 52-week low of $44.67 and a 52-week high of $61.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $161.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $141.00 million. Unitil had a return on equity of 9.38% and a net margin of 7.45%. Equities research analysts expect that Unitil Co. will post 2.77 EPS for the current year.

Unitil Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 15th. Unitil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.91%.

Unitil Profile

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UNITIL Corp. operates as a holding company, which engages in the local distribution of electricity and natural gas. It operates through the following segments: Electric, Gas, and Others. The company was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Hampton, NH.