Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Decreases Stock Position in Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE:WTRG)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado reduced its position in Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 16.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 396,797 shares of the company’s stock after selling 79,138 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado owned approximately 0.14% of Essential Utilities worth $14,412,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Blair William & Co. IL boosted its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 24,652 shares of the company’s stock worth $895,000 after acquiring an additional 285 shares during the period. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV boosted its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 6,342 shares of the company’s stock worth $230,000 after acquiring an additional 289 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 70,100 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,546,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Rothschild Investment LLC boosted its stake in Essential Utilities by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 19,527 shares of the company’s stock valued at $709,000 after buying an additional 317 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Essential Utilities by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,946 shares of the company’s stock valued at $180,000 after buying an additional 332 shares during the period. 74.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on WTRG. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Essential Utilities from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Essential Utilities from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Essential Utilities from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com raised Essential Utilities from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Essential Utilities from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $41.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.50.

Essential Utilities Price Performance

NYSE WTRG opened at $40.13 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.55. The business’s fifty day moving average is $38.92 and its 200 day moving average is $37.96. The company has a market capitalization of $11.06 billion, a PE ratio of 20.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.80. Essential Utilities, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.18 and a fifty-two week high of $41.78.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by $0.01. Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 7.89% and a net margin of 27.84%. The company had revenue of $604.38 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $698.77 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Essential Utilities, Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Essential Utilities Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.3255 per share. This represents a $1.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. Essential Utilities’s payout ratio is 59.91%.

About Essential Utilities

Essential Utilities, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates regulated utilities that provide water, wastewater, or natural gas services in the United States. The company operates through Regulated Water and Regulated Natural Gas segments. It offers water services through operating and maintenance contract with municipal authorities and other parties.