Essential Utilities (WTRG) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

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. In addition, the company provides utility service line protection solutions and repair services to households. It serves approximately 5.5 million residential water, commercial water, fire protection, industrial water, wastewater, and other water and utility customers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, Illinois, North Carolina, New Jersey, Indiana, Virginia, and Kentucky under the Aqua and Peoples brands. The company was formerly known as Aqua America, Inc. and changed its name to Essential Utilities, Inc. in February 2020. Essential Utilities, Inc. was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $36.05 to $36.58
• 50-Day Range: $36.18 to $40.55
• 52-Week Range: $33.57 to $41.78
• Volume: 5.38 million shs
• Average Volume: 1.53 million shs
• Market Capitalization: $9.98 billion
• P/E Ratio: 18.18
• Dividend Yield: 3.58%
• Price Target: $44.00
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy

Essential Utilities Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Essential Utilities scored higher than 90% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 16th out of 91 stocks in the utilities sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 2.4 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Moderate Buy

Consensus Rating

Essential Utilities has received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.80, and is based on 4 buy ratings, 1 hold rating, and no sell ratings.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Essential Utilities has only been the subject of 3 research reports in the past 90 days.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 1.9 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 5.47%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Essential Utilities are expected to grow by 5.47% in the coming year, from $2.01 to $2.12 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Essential Utilities is 18.18, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 113.36.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Essential Utilities is 18.18, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Utilities sector average P/E ratio of about 95.36.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

Essential Utilities has a PEG Ratio of 3.06. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Essential Utilities has a P/B Ratio of 1.68. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 3.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

1.63% of the outstanding shares of Essential Utilities have been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Essential Utilities has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 3.1, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Essential Utilities has recently increased by 7.19%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 5.0 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Strong

Dividend Leadership

Essential Utilities is a leading dividend payer. It pays a dividend yield of 3.60%, putting its dividend yield in the top 25% of dividend-paying stocks.

Dividend Growth

Essential Utilities has been increasing its dividend for 32 years.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of Essential Utilities is 65.00%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, Essential Utilities will have a dividend payout ratio of 61.32% next year. This indicates that Essential Utilities will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

Sustainability and ESG

• Score: 3.1 / 5
• Environmental Score: -2.18

Percentage of Shares Shorted

1.63% of the outstanding shares of Essential Utilities have been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Essential Utilities has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 3.1, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Essential Utilities has recently increased by 7.19%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

News and Social Media

• Score: 1.5 / 5
• News Sentiment: 0.74

News Sentiment

Essential Utilities has a news sentiment score of 0.74. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This news sentiment score is similar to the average news sentiment of Utilities companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 6 news articles for Essential Utilities this week, compared to 6 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

Only 2 people have searched for WTRG on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -78% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

Only 2 people have added Essential Utilities to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -33% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.7 / 5
• Insider Trading: N/A

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Essential Utilities insiders have not sold or bought any company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

Only 0.21% of the stock of Essential Utilities is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

74.78% of the stock of Essential Utilities is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

WTRG Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

How have WTRG shares performed this year?

Essential Utilities' stock was trading at $37.35 on January 1st, 2024. Since then, WTRG stock has decreased by 2.7% and is now trading at $36.36.
View the best growth stocks for 2024 here.

How were Essential Utilities' earnings last quarter?

Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November, 4th. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.01. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year.

Who are Essential Utilities' major shareholders?

Top institutional shareholders of Essential Utilities include State Street Corp (4.54%), Geode Capital Management LLC (1.57%), FMR LLC (0.98%) and Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. (0.92%). Insiders that own company stock include Robert A Rubin, Chris Franklin, Ellen T Ruff and Colleen Arnold.
View institutional ownership trends.

How do I buy shares of Essential Utilities?

Shares of WTRG stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.
Compare Top Brokerages Here.

What other stocks do shareholders of Essential Utilities own?

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that Essential Utilities investors own include Humana (HUM), American Water Works (AWK), Waste Connections (WCN), Voyager Therapeutics (VYGR), The RMR Group (RMR), DiamondRock Hospitality (DRH) and AUO (AUOTY).

Company Calendar

• Last Earnings: 11/04/2024
• Ex-Dividend for 12/2 Dividend: 11/12/2024
• Dividend Payable: 12/02/2024
• Today: 12/22/2024
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2024

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Utilities
• Industry: Water supply
• Sub-Industry: Utilities
• Current Symbol: NYSE:WTRG
• CUSIP: N/A
• CIK: 78128
• Web: www.essential.co
• Phone: (610) 527-8000
• Fax: 610-645-1061
• Employees: 3,258
• Year Founded: N/A

Price Target and Rating

• Average Stock Price Target: $44.00
• High Stock Price Target: $46.00
• Low Stock Price Target: $41.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +21.0%
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.80
• Research Coverage: 5 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Most Recent Fiscal Year): $2.00
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 18.18
• Forward P/E Ratio: 18.09
• P/E Growth: 3.06
• Net Income: $498.23 million
• Net Margins: 27.84%
• Pretax Margin: 26.63%
• Return on Equity: 7.89%
• Return on Assets: 2.79%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 1.17
• Current Ratio: 0.55
• Quick Ratio: 0.39

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $1.96 billion
• Price / Sales: 5.09
• Cash Flow: $2.90 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 12.55
• Book Value: $21.58 per share
• Price / Book: 1.68

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 274,611,000
• Free Float: 274,034,000
• Market Cap: $9.98 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.85