Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG Shares Acquired by Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co

Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co increased its stake in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 88.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 57,388 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 27,008 shares during the quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Essential Utilities were worth $2,290,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WTRG. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Essential Utilities in the 4th quarter worth about $638,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in Essential Utilities by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 12,861 shares of the company’s stock worth $508,000 after purchasing an additional 928 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 1.8% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 29,674 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,173,000 after purchasing an additional 530 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 122.7% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 943,797 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,308,000 after buying an additional 519,933 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth boosted its position in shares of Essential Utilities by 4.9% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 22,322 shares of the company’s stock worth $882,000 after buying an additional 1,044 shares during the period. 74.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Essential Utilities Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of Essential Utilities stock opened at $40.33 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.03. Essential Utilities Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.32 and a fifty-two week high of $42.37. The firm has a market cap of $11.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.25 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $699.11 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $611.60 million. Essential Utilities had a net margin of 24.91% and a return on equity of 9.18%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.67 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Essential Utilities Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on WTRG. Barclays set a $38.00 target price on Essential Utilities and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Northcoast Research raised shares of Essential Utilities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.20.

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.