Unitil Corporation $UTL Shares Sold by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC lowered its position in Unitil Corporation (NYSE:UTL) by 43.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 10,746 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 8,269 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC owned 0.07% of Unitil worth $620,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in UTL. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in shares of Unitil by 27.8% during the first quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 51,524 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,972,000 after acquiring an additional 11,221 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Unitil in the first quarter valued at about $7,457,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Unitil by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,365,282 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $78,763,000 after purchasing an additional 82,137 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in Unitil by 32.1% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 7,531 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $434,000 after purchasing an additional 1,828 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp acquired a new position in shares of Unitil in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $212,000. 76.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Unitil Stock Performance

Unitil stock opened at $46.89 on Friday. Unitil Corporation has a 52 week low of $46.31 and a 52 week high of $63.52. The company has a current ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market cap of $829.40 million, a P/E ratio of 16.11 and a beta of 0.66. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $50.48 and a 200-day moving average of $54.02.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.01. Unitil had a net margin of 9.54% and a return on equity of 9.46%. The firm had revenue of $101.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $101.00 million. On average, analysts expect that Unitil Corporation will post 3.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Unitil Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 14th were paid a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 14th. Unitil’s dividend payout ratio is 61.86%.

Unitil Profile

Unitil Corporation, a public utility holding company, engages in the distribution of electricity and natural gas. It operates through two segments, Utility Electric Operations, Utility Gas Operations. The company distributes electricity in the southeastern seacoast and state capital regions of New Hampshire, and the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts; and distributes natural gas in southeastern New Hampshire and portions of southern and central Maine, including the city of Portland and the Lewiston-Auburn area, as well as electricity and natural gas in the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts.