Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) Holdings Reduced by First Manhattan CO. LLC.

First Manhattan CO. LLC. lowered its position in Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 179,893 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,622 shares during the quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC. owned about 0.07% of Essential Utilities worth $6,534,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WTRG. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Essential Utilities by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,061,135 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,091,820,000 after acquiring an additional 2,245,256 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 31.2% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 6,726,215 shares of the company’s stock valued at $244,296,000 after purchasing an additional 1,597,672 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Essential Utilities by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,317,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $156,526,000 after purchasing an additional 11,336 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Essential Utilities by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,690,116 shares of the company’s stock valued at $134,025,000 after buying an additional 236,250 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Essential Utilities by 22.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,331,090 shares of the company’s stock valued at $120,985,000 after buying an additional 601,026 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WTRG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of 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. StockNews.com upgraded Essential Utilities from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 20th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Essential Utilities from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Essential Utilities from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Essential Utilities from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Essential Utilities currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.50.

Essential Utilities Trading Up 0.3 %

Essential Utilities stock opened at $40.74 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $39.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.55. Essential Utilities, Inc. has a 52 week low of $33.18 and a 52 week high of $41.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.85.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.67 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $604.38 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $698.77 million. Research analysts forecast that Essential Utilities, Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current year.

Essential Utilities Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a $0.3255 dividend. This represents a $1.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. Essential Utilities’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.91%.

Essential Utilities Company Profile

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.