Dakota Wealth Management Purchases Shares of 17,848 Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Dakota Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $685,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Essential Utilities by 2.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,246,084 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,246,719,000 after acquiring an additional 838,450 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Essential Utilities by 5.0% during the third 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 during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 1,822,306 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in Essential Utilities by 2.7% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 5,637,022 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,997,000 after purchasing an additional 146,960 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 3,479,762 shares during the period. 74.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WTRG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Argus upgraded shares of Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a report on Monday, December 29th. Northcoast Research raised Essential Utilities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, Barclays set a $38.00 target price on Essential Utilities and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $43.20.

Essential Utilities Trading Up 1.8%

NYSE WTRG opened at $41.08 on Tuesday. Essential Utilities Inc. has a one year low of $36.32 and a one year high of $42.37. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $39.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.59 and a beta of 0.81.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.11. Essential Utilities had a net margin of 24.91% and a return on equity of 9.18%. The firm had revenue of $699.11 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $611.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.67 earnings per share. Essential Utilities’s revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current year.

Essential Utilities Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 12th. This represents a $1.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Essential Utilities’s payout ratio is presently 61.99%.

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.