Unitil (NYSE:UTL) Stock Breaks Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

Shares of Unitil Corporation (NYSE:UTL) passed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Friday. The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $52.66 and traded as high as $55.19. Unitil shares last traded at $55.1510, with a volume of 87,978 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on UTL. Huntington began coverage on Unitil in a research note on Monday, September 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $63.00 price objective for the company. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Unitil from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $58.67.

Unitil Stock Performance

The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $52.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $52.66. The company has a market capitalization of $1.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.40 and a beta of 0.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.45.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $117.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $113.19 million. Unitil had a net margin of 9.49% and a return on equity of 9.53%. As a group, research analysts expect that Unitil Corporation will post 3.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Unitil Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th were issued a dividend of $0.4750 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 17th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. Unitil’s dividend payout ratio is currently 59.94%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Unitil

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Unitil by 12.4% in the third quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 5,982 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $304,000 after buying an additional 658 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its stake in Unitil by 360.0% in the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 59,289 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,010,000 after acquiring an additional 46,400 shares during the last quarter. Ellsworth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Unitil in the third quarter valued at approximately $989,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Unitil by 48.2% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,572 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $283,000 after acquiring an additional 1,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in Unitil by 439.3% during the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 480 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 391 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.76% of the company’s stock.

About Unitil

Unitil Corporation is a regulated public utility holding company that delivers electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Its operations focus primarily on the distribution of energy through local utility networks rather than the production of electricity or natural gas.

Through its operating subsidiaries, Unitil provides electric distribution service in portions of New Hampshire and Massachusetts and natural gas distribution service in parts of southern New Hampshire and central Massachusetts.