AdvisorNet Financial Inc Has $8.94 Million Holdings in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

AdvisorNet Financial Inc lifted its stake in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 130.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 232,963 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 131,712 shares during the quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc owned about 0.08% of Essential Utilities worth $8,936,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 587.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,071,929 shares of the company’s stock valued at $162,472,000 after acquiring an additional 3,479,762 shares in the last quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd acquired a new stake in Essential Utilities in the 3rd quarter valued at $128,137,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Essential Utilities by 25.5% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,972,565 shares of the company’s stock worth $354,057,000 after buying an additional 1,822,306 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 1,572.4% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,271,201 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,212,000 after buying an additional 1,195,189 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 121.8% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,591,706 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,697,000 after buying an additional 873,990 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a report on Monday, December 29th. Barclays set a $38.00 price objective on shares of Essential Utilities and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Essential Utilities has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.20.

Essential Utilities Stock Performance

NYSE:WTRG opened at $41.03 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $11.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.57 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $39.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.27. Essential Utilities Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.32 and a twelve month high of $42.37.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share (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%. Essential Utilities’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.67 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict 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. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be issued a $0.3426 dividend. This represents a $1.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 12th. Essential Utilities’s dividend payout ratio is presently 61.99%.

About Essential Utilities

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.