Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG Shares Acquired by Intech Investment Management LLC

Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 57.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 46,334 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 16,863 shares during the quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Essential Utilities were worth $1,849,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WTRG. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Essential Utilities by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,246,084 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,246,719,000 after buying an additional 838,450 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake 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 worth $354,057,000 after acquiring an additional 1,822,306 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 2.7% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 5,637,022 shares of the company’s stock valued at $218,997,000 after acquiring an additional 146,960 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 3.8% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 587.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,071,929 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,472,000 after acquiring an additional 3,479,762 shares during the period. 74.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Essential Utilities Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of WTRG stock opened at $40.33 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $11.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.25 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. Essential Utilities Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.32 and a fifty-two week high of $42.37. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.03.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.11. Essential Utilities had a net margin of 24.91% and a return on equity of 9.18%. The firm had revenue of $699.11 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $611.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.67 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essential Utilities Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be given a $0.3426 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 12th. This represents a $1.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Essential Utilities’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.99%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on WTRG. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Barclays set a $38.00 target price on Essential Utilities and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Northcoast Research upgraded Essential Utilities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Essential Utilities currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.20.

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.