Unitil Corporation (NYSE:UTL) Stock Has Consensus Price Target of $58.67

Unitil Corporation (NYSE:UTL) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $58.67.

UTL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Huntington started coverage on shares of Unitil in a research report on Monday, September 14th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $63.00 price objective on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Unitil from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 8th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of UTL. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in shares of Unitil by 439.3% during the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 480 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 391 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Unitil by 196.1% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 610 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank grew its position in shares of Unitil by 1.7% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 35,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,849,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Unitil by 34.7% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,170 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $166,000 after purchasing an additional 816 shares during the period. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LP increased its stake in Unitil by 5.6% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 15,508 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $817,000 after purchasing an additional 818 shares during the last quarter. 76.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Unitil Stock Performance

Shares of UTL stock opened at $52.98 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $52.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $52.59. The stock has a market cap of $966.14 million, a PE ratio of 16.71 and a beta of 0.26. Unitil has a 1 year low of $46.91 and a 1 year high of $57.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.49.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.03. Unitil had a return on equity of 9.53% and a net margin of 9.49%. The company had revenue of $117.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $113.19 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that Unitil will post 3.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Unitil Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 17th were given a $0.4750 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 17th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Unitil’s dividend payout ratio is currently 59.94%.

About Unitil

Unitil Corporation is a regulated public utility holding company that provides electric and natural gas distribution services in New England. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company delivers electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers, while maintaining the local infrastructure required to support safe and reliable service.

Unitil’s electric operations serve communities in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Its natural gas businesses provide distribution service primarily in New Hampshire and the greater Fitchburg area of Massachusetts.