Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. Takes Position in Unitil Corporation $UTL

Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in Unitil Corporation (NYSE:UTL) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 5,382 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $281,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. CWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of Unitil by 45.8% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 882 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Unitil by 27.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 887 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Unitil in the first quarter valued at approximately $99,000. AlphaQuest LLC bought a new position in shares of Unitil in the first quarter valued at approximately $100,000. Finally, Teton Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Unitil in the first quarter valued at approximately $202,000. 76.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Unitil in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.00.

Unitil Price Performance

Shares of NYSE UTL opened at $49.51 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $47.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $51.49. Unitil Corporation has a 1-year low of $44.61 and a 1-year high of $61.51. The firm has a market cap of $875.55 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.01 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $101.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $101.00 million. Unitil had a return on equity of 9.46% and a net margin of 9.54%. Analysts anticipate that Unitil Corporation will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Unitil Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 14th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 14th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Unitil’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.86%.

Unitil Profile

Unitil Corporation, a public utility holding company, engages in the distribution of electricity and natural gas. It operates through two segments, Utility Electric Operations, Utility Gas Operations. The company distributes electricity in the southeastern seacoast and state capital regions of New Hampshire, and the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts; and distributes natural gas in southeastern New Hampshire and portions of southern and central Maine, including the city of Portland and the Lewiston-Auburn area, as well as electricity and natural gas in the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts.