Unitil (NYSE:UTL) Stock Price Crosses Above 200 Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Unitil Corporation (NYSE:UTL) shares passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Thursday. The stock has a 200-day moving average of $52.61 and traded as high as $54.21. Unitil shares last traded at $53.3570, with a volume of 96,523 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on UTL shares. Huntington started coverage on shares of Unitil in a research note on Monday, September 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $63.00 price objective on the stock. 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 given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Unitil currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.67.

Unitil Trading Up 1.4%

The company has a current ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $986.71 million, a P/E ratio of 17.06 and a beta of 0.26. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $52.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $52.62.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.03. Unitil had a return on equity of 9.53% and a net margin of 9.49%. The company had revenue of $117.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $113.19 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Unitil Corporation will post 3.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Unitil Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th were given a dividend of $0.4750 per share. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 17th. Unitil’s dividend payout ratio is presently 59.94%.

Institutional Trading of Unitil

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Unitil in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $152,441,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new stake in Unitil during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,864,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in Unitil by 23.5% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 490,041 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,600,000 after acquiring an additional 93,101 shares during the last quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Unitil in the second quarter valued at approximately $12,242,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Unitil in the second quarter valued at approximately $5,730,000. 76.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Unitil

Unitil Corporation is a regulated public utility holding company that provides electric and natural gas distribution services in New England. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company delivers electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers, while maintaining the local infrastructure required to support safe and reliable service.

Unitil’s electric operations serve communities in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Its natural gas businesses provide distribution service primarily in New Hampshire and the greater Fitchburg area of Massachusetts.