Legal & General Group Plc Purchases 662,334 Shares of Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 19.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,149,063 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 662,334 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 1.47% of Essential Utilities worth $159,158,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. GoalVest Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Essential Utilities in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp raised its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 1,163.8% in the third quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 733 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 675 shares during the last quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton raised its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 31,466.7% in the fourth quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 947 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 944 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 43.6% in the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,114 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 338 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Essential Utilities in the third quarter valued at about $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Argus upgraded shares of Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, UBS Group set a $41.00 target price on shares of Essential Utilities in a report on Thursday, May 7th. 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $42.40.

Essential Utilities Price Performance

WTRG opened at $37.14 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $10.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.85 and a beta of 0.67. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $39.10 and a 200 day moving average of $39.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.95. Essential Utilities Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.32 and a fifty-two week high of $42.37.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $861.76 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $782.90 million. Essential Utilities had a net margin of 21.82% and a return on equity of 8.34%. Essential Utilities’s quarterly revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.03 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.25 EPS for the current year.

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.