Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG Shares Acquired by Maryland State Retirement & Pension System

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its stake in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 11.2% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 273,383 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 27,562 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Essential Utilities were worth $10,908,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Essential Utilities by 2.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,407,634 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,129,340,000 after purchasing an additional 693,988 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 25.5% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,972,565 shares of the company’s stock valued at $354,057,000 after buying an additional 1,822,306 shares during the period. Amundi lifted its stake in Essential Utilities by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 5,637,022 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,997,000 after acquiring an additional 146,960 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Essential Utilities by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,734,532 shares of the company’s stock valued at $175,313,000 after acquiring an additional 173,319 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Essential Utilities by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,488,920 shares of the company’s stock valued at $129,578,000 after acquiring an additional 136,270 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on WTRG. Baird R W lowered shares of Essential Utilities from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Essential Utilities from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $47.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Essential Utilities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Janney Montgomery Scott downgraded shares of Essential Utilities from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Barclays set a $38.00 price objective on shares of Essential Utilities and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $43.29.

Essential Utilities Stock Performance

Shares of Essential Utilities stock opened at $39.86 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. Essential Utilities Inc. has a 52 week low of $33.38 and a 52 week high of $42.37. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $38.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.54 and a beta of 0.81.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.06. Essential Utilities had a net margin of 28.09% and a return on equity of 10.20%. The business had revenue of $476.97 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $472.40 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.25 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Essential Utilities Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.3426 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $1.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Essential Utilities’s payout ratio is 56.85%.

Essential Utilities Company Profile

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.