Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.36

Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 21st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.3606 per share on Tuesday, December 1st. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 10th.

Essential Utilities has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.1% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 32 years. Essential Utilities has a dividend payout ratio of 64.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Essential Utilities to earn $2.43 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 59.3%.

Essential Utilities Stock Up 3.6%

Shares of NYSE:WTRG traded up $1.46 during trading on Thursday, hitting $42.20. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 357,351 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,250,786. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.78. Essential Utilities has a fifty-two week low of $36.10 and a fifty-two week high of $42.51. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $40.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.20. The company has a market capitalization of $11.98 billion, a PE ratio of 21.51, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.63.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 8.23% and a net margin of 21.60%. The firm had revenue of $530.85 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $538.90 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. Essential Utilities’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Essential Utilities will post 2.21 EPS for the current year.

Essential Utilities Company Profile

Essential Utilities, Inc is a regulated utility company that provides water, wastewater and natural gas services to residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers. Through its Aqua and Peoples operations, the company owns and operates water and wastewater systems, natural gas distribution networks and related infrastructure. Its services include the treatment and delivery of drinking water, collection and treatment of wastewater, and the distribution of natural gas.

The company serves customers across several U.S.