A. D. Beadell Investment Counsel Inc. Purchases New Shares in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

A. D. Beadell Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new stake in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 37,345 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,432,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Essential Utilities by 2.8% in 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 period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Essential Utilities by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,591,999 shares of the company’s stock worth $542,321,000 after purchasing an additional 641,743 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Essential Utilities by 25.5% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,972,565 shares of the company’s stock worth $354,057,000 after purchasing an additional 1,822,306 shares during the period. Amundi increased its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 146,960 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Essential Utilities by 587.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,071,929 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,472,000 after buying an additional 3,479,762 shares in the last quarter. 74.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WTRG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays set a $38.00 price objective on Essential Utilities and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Argus raised Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Northcoast Research upgraded Essential Utilities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Two research 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.20.

Essential Utilities Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WTRG opened at $40.37 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $39.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $39.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The company has a market capitalization of $11.44 billion, a PE ratio of 18.27 and a beta of 0.82. Essential Utilities Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.32 and a 1-year high of $42.37.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $699.11 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.67 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Essential Utilities Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.3426 per share. 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 (DPR) is currently 61.99%.

Essential Utilities 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.