9,813 Shares in Unitil Corporation $UTL Acquired by Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd.

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in Unitil Corporation (NYSE:UTL) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 9,813 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $512,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of UTL. CWM LLC boosted its stake in shares of Unitil by 45.8% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 882 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 277 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Unitil by 46.4% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in Unitil in the first quarter worth about $99,000. AlphaQuest LLC purchased a new position in Unitil in the first quarter worth about $100,000. Finally, Teton Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Unitil during the 1st quarter valued at about $202,000. 76.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on UTL shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Unitil in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Unitil from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.00.

Unitil Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE UTL opened at $48.02 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $860.26 million, a PE ratio of 16.50 and a beta of 0.62. Unitil Corporation has a 1 year low of $44.61 and a 1 year high of $61.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $47.73 and a 200-day moving average price of $50.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.58 and a quick ratio of 0.52.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.06. Unitil had a net margin of 9.54% and a return on equity of 9.46%. The company had revenue of $101.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $100.40 million. Equities analysts anticipate that Unitil Corporation will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Unitil Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 13th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 13th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.7%. Unitil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 62.28%.

Unitil Company Profile

Unitil Corporation, a public utility holding company, engages in the distribution of electricity and natural gas. It operates through two segments, Utility Electric Operations, Utility Gas Operations. The company distributes electricity in the southeastern seacoast and state capital regions of New Hampshire, and the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts; and distributes natural gas in southeastern New Hampshire and portions of southern and central Maine, including the city of Portland and the Lewiston-Auburn area, as well as electricity and natural gas in the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts.