Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG Stock Position Trimmed by Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada trimmed its position in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 3.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 420,261 shares of the company’s stock after selling 16,422 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada owned 0.15% of Essential Utilities worth $16,924,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WTRG. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,833,175 shares of the company’s stock valued at $530,641,000 after purchasing an additional 241,176 shares during the period. Amundi grew its holdings in Essential Utilities by 33.4% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 6,335,695 shares of the company’s stock worth $243,023,000 after buying an additional 1,586,622 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Essential Utilities by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,233,715 shares of the company’s stock worth $200,197,000 after buying an additional 120,947 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its position in Essential Utilities by 19.5% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,539,977 shares of the company’s stock valued at $174,163,000 after acquiring an additional 741,587 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Essential Utilities by 19.0% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,149,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $159,158,000 after acquiring an additional 662,334 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WTRG. Wall Street Zen raised Essential Utilities to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 4th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Essential Utilities from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Essential Utilities has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.00.

Essential Utilities Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of WTRG stock opened at $39.85 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $38.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.33 and a beta of 0.64. Essential Utilities Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.10 and a fifty-two week high of $42.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. Essential Utilities had a net margin of 21.60% and a return on equity of 8.23%. The firm had revenue of $530.85 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $538.90 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.38 earnings per share. Essential Utilities’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essential Utilities Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.3606 per share. This is a boost from Essential Utilities’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 11th. Essential Utilities’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 69.90%.

Essential Utilities 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.