Janney Montgomery Scott LLC cut its holdings in Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE:WTRG – Free Report) by 8.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 127,707 shares of the company’s stock after selling 12,157 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Essential Utilities were worth $4,638,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cetera Trust Company N.A boosted its position in shares of Essential Utilities by 41.7% during the fourth quarter. Cetera Trust Company N.A now owns 6,325 shares of the company’s stock worth $230,000 after purchasing an additional 1,860 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Essential Utilities by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 50,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,821,000 after purchasing an additional 1,490 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Essential Utilities by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,919 shares of the company’s stock worth $397,000 after purchasing an additional 856 shares in the last quarter. Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Essential Utilities by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc. now owns 201,926 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,334,000 after purchasing an additional 1,719 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Essential Utilities by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 175,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,374,000 after purchasing an additional 4,800 shares in the last quarter. 74.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on WTRG shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Essential Utilities from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $41.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Essential Utilities from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Essential Utilities from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Essential Utilities from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $43.00 to $39.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.00.
Essential Utilities Stock Down 1.4 %
Shares of WTRG stock opened at $35.20 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. Essential Utilities, Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.18 and a 1 year high of $41.78. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $36.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $38.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.60, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.86.
Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.01. Essential Utilities had a net margin of 27.84% and a return on equity of 7.89%. The firm had revenue of $435.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $416.95 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.30 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Essential Utilities, Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Essential Utilities Announces Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be paid a $0.3255 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.70%. Essential Utilities’s payout ratio is currently 65.00%.
Essential Utilities Profile
Essential Utilities, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates regulated utilities that provide water, wastewater, or natural gas services in the United States. The company operates through Regulated Water and Regulated Natural Gas segments. It offers water services through operating and maintenance contract with municipal authorities and other parties.
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