22,341 Shares in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG Purchased by Robeco Schweiz AG

Robeco Schweiz AG purchased a new position in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 22,341 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $876,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WTRG. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Essential Utilities in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,280,829,000. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Essential Utilities by 5.5% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,119,170 shares of the company’s stock worth $502,595,000 after acquiring an additional 687,688 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in shares of Essential Utilities during the second quarter worth approximately $134,247,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 1,224.0% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,233,682 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,728,000 after acquiring an additional 2,989,455 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Essential Utilities by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,881,490 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,049,000 after purchasing an additional 106,252 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Colleen Arnold sold 2,855 shares of Essential Utilities stock in a transaction on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.55, for a total value of $112,915.25. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 17,347 shares in the company, valued at $686,073.85. This trade represents a 14.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WTRG. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Essential Utilities from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Essential Utilities from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Essential Utilities from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Essential Utilities to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, July 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.25.

Essential Utilities Stock Up 0.1%

Essential Utilities stock opened at $43.15 on Monday. Essential Utilities Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.10 and a twelve month high of $43.61. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $40.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $39.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.01, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.63.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $530.85 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $538.90 million. Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 8.23% and a net margin of 21.60%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Essential Utilities Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.3606 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 10th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Essential Utilities’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 73.47%.

About Essential Utilities

Essential Utilities, Inc is a regulated utility company that provides water, wastewater and natural gas services to residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers. Through its Aqua and Peoples operations, the company owns and operates water and wastewater systems, natural gas distribution networks and related infrastructure. Its services include the treatment and delivery of drinking water, collection and treatment of wastewater, and the distribution of natural gas.

The company serves customers across several U.S.