Unitil (NYSE:UTL) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday. The utilities provider reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by $0.02, FiscalAI reports. Unitil had a return on equity of 9.53% and a net margin of 9.49%. The firm had revenue of $112.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $113.11 million.

Unitil Trading Up 1.7%

Shares of UTL stock opened at $56.42 on Tuesday. Unitil has a fifty-two week low of $46.91 and a fifty-two week high of $57.26. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $53.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $52.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.49. The company has a market cap of $1.03 billion, a PE ratio of 17.80 and a beta of 0.27.

Unitil Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.4750 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. Unitil’s dividend payout ratio is presently 59.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

UTL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Huntington initiated coverage on shares of Unitil in a research report on Monday, September 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $63.00 price target 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $58.67.

About Unitil

Unitil Corporation is a regulated public utility holding company that delivers electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Its operations focus primarily on the distribution of energy through local utility networks rather than the production of electricity or natural gas.

Through its operating subsidiaries, Unitil provides electric distribution service in portions of New Hampshire and Massachusetts and natural gas distribution service in parts of southern New Hampshire and central Massachusetts.