Ninepoint Partners LP Buys New Stake in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Ninepoint Partners LP purchased a new stake in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 38,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,556,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Essential Utilities by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,246,084 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,246,719,000 after buying an additional 838,450 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 25.5% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,972,565 shares of the company’s stock valued at $354,057,000 after acquiring an additional 1,822,306 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its stake in Essential Utilities by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 5,637,022 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,997,000 after purchasing an additional 146,960 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Essential Utilities by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,734,532 shares of the company’s stock worth $175,313,000 after purchasing an additional 173,319 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Essential Utilities by 587.6% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,071,929 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,472,000 after purchasing an additional 3,479,762 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Northcoast Research raised shares of Essential Utilities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Barclays set a $38.00 price objective on Essential Utilities and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.67.

Essential Utilities Stock Performance

NYSE WTRG opened at $40.06 on Friday. Essential Utilities Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.32 and a 1-year high of $42.37. The company has a market capitalization of $11.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.13 and a beta of 0.81. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $38.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 0.60 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.11. Essential Utilities had a net margin of 24.91% and a return on equity of 9.25%. The firm had revenue of $699.11 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $611.60 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.67 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Essential Utilities Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be issued a $0.3426 dividend. This represents a $1.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 12th. Essential Utilities’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.99%.

Essential Utilities Company 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.