Essential Utilities Inc. (WTRG) To Go Ex-Dividend on November 10th

Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 21st. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.3606 per share on Tuesday, December 1st. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 10th.

Essential Utilities has increased its dividend payment by an average of 0.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 32 consecutive years. Essential Utilities has a dividend payout ratio of 64.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Essential Utilities to earn $2.43 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 59.3%.

Essential Utilities Stock Performance

Shares of WTRG stock opened at $43.28 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $40.48 and a 200-day moving average price of $39.22. Essential Utilities has a 52 week low of $36.10 and a 52 week high of $43.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.28 billion, a PE ratio of 20.27, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.63.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last released its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $538.90 million. Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 8.23% and a net margin of 21.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Essential Utilities will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on WTRG. Barclays increased their target price on 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 lowered their target price on shares of Essential Utilities from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 16th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Essential Utilities from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Essential Utilities to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.25.

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.