Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG – Free Report) by 829.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 125,200 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 111,734 shares during the quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC’s holdings in Essential Utilities were worth $5,042,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new position in shares of Essential Utilities during the fourth quarter worth $638,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in Essential Utilities by 7.8% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 12,861 shares of the company’s stock valued at $508,000 after purchasing an additional 928 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted 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 purchasing an additional 530 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Essential Utilities by 122.7% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 943,797 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,308,000 after purchasing an additional 519,933 shares during the period. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth grew its position in Essential Utilities by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 22,322 shares of the company’s stock worth $882,000 after purchasing an additional 1,044 shares during the period. 74.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
WTRG has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on Essential Utilities from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Essential Utilities from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised Essential Utilities to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, July 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.00.
Essential Utilities Trading Up 0.6%
Shares of Essential Utilities stock opened at $39.85 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $38.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $38.88. The company has a market cap 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 debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.78.
Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 8.23% and a net margin of 21.60%.The firm had revenue of $530.85 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $538.90 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.38 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Essential Utilities Increases Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 11th will be issued a $0.3606 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 11th. This is an increase from Essential Utilities’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. Essential Utilities’s dividend payout ratio is 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.
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