Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. Purchases 59,730 Shares of Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. increased its position in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 2.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,202,525 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 59,730 shares during the quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. owned approximately 0.78% of Essential Utilities worth $87,881,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WTRG. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new position in shares of Essential Utilities in the 4th quarter valued at about $638,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 7.8% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 12,861 shares of the company’s stock worth $508,000 after buying an additional 928 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Essential Utilities by 1.8% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 29,674 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,173,000 after buying an additional 530 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Essential Utilities by 122.7% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 943,797 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,308,000 after buying an additional 519,933 shares during the period. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth boosted its stake in Essential Utilities by 4.9% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 22,322 shares of the company’s stock valued at $882,000 after acquiring an additional 1,044 shares during the last quarter. 74.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Essential Utilities Stock Up 0.7%

Essential Utilities stock opened at $39.79 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.01 and a beta of 0.82. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $39.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.65. Essential Utilities Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.32 and a fifty-two week high of $42.37.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $699.11 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $611.60 million. Essential Utilities had a net margin of 24.91% and a return on equity of 9.18%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.67 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current year.

Essential Utilities Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Essential Utilities’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.99%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.