Perigon Wealth Management LLC Purchases Shares of 24,987 Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

by · The Cerbat Gem

Perigon Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG – Free Report) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 24,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $958,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Synergy Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Essential Utilities by 351.4% in the third quarter. Synergy Asset Management LLC now owns 234,179 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,057,000 after acquiring an additional 182,301 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 39.8% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 99,453 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,968,000 after acquiring an additional 28,329 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 25.5% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,972,565 shares of the company’s stock valued at $354,057,000 after acquiring an additional 1,822,306 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Essential Utilities by 16.4% during the third quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 966,685 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,571,000 after purchasing an additional 135,899 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Essential Utilities by 1.1% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,709,048 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,091,000 after purchasing an additional 29,904 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Read Our Latest Report on WTRG

Essential Utilities Stock Performance

Shares of Essential Utilities stock opened at $40.89 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $11.58 billion, a PE ratio of 18.50 and a beta of 0.78. Essential Utilities Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.32 and a 52 week high of $42.37. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $39.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $39.32. 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 – Get Free Report) 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. Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 9.18% and a net margin of 24.91%.The company had revenue of $699.11 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $611.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.67 earnings per share. Essential Utilities’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share 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. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.3426 per share. This represents a $1.37 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 12th. Essential Utilities’s payout ratio is currently 61.99%.

Essential Utilities Company Profile

(Free Report)

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.

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