Westerkirk Capital Inc. Buys Shares of 15,900 Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Westerkirk Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 15,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $591,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in WTRG. M&T Bank Corp boosted its holdings in Essential Utilities by 4.5% during the second quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 40,962 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,522,000 after purchasing an additional 1,754 shares during the last quarter. Bernardo Wealth Planning LLC lifted its position in Essential Utilities by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bernardo Wealth Planning LLC now owns 11,626 shares of the company’s stock worth $432,000 after buying an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 569,985 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,169,000 after buying an additional 6,713 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Essential Utilities during the 2nd quarter worth about $102,347,000. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 32,643 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,212,000 after acquiring an additional 2,094 shares in the last quarter. 74.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on WTRG shares. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $45.00 target price (down previously from $46.00) on shares of Essential Utilities in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Essential Utilities from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 11th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Essential Utilities from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $47.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a report on Monday. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Essential Utilities from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.57.

Essential Utilities Price Performance

Shares of WTRG opened at $38.85 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $39.73 and its 200-day moving average is $38.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.99 billion, a PE ratio of 16.67, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.84. Essential Utilities Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.18 and a fifty-two week high of $42.37.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $476.97 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $472.40 million. Essential Utilities had a net margin of 27.62% and a return on equity of 10.10%. Essential Utilities’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.25 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current year.

Essential Utilities Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.3426 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $1.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Essential Utilities’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.85%.

Essential Utilities Company Profile

Essential Utilities, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates regulated utilities that provide water, wastewater, or natural gas services in the United States. The company operates through Regulated Water and Regulated Natural Gas segments. It offers water services through operating and maintenance contract with municipal authorities and other parties.