Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Grows Stock Holdings in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd grew its holdings in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 713.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 113,084 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 99,186 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in Essential Utilities were worth $4,554,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. GoalVest Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Essential Utilities in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Fideuram Asset Management Ireland dac purchased a new position in Essential Utilities in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Essential Utilities during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Motiv8 Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Essential Utilities during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton boosted its position 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 worth $36,000 after buying an additional 944 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on WTRG shares. Argus upgraded Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded Essential Utilities to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Essential Utilities from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.40.

Essential Utilities Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of Essential Utilities stock opened at $39.33 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $37.68 and a 200-day moving average of $38.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company has a market capitalization of $11.15 billion, a PE ratio of 19.96 and a beta of 0.65. Essential Utilities Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.10 and a 1-year high of $42.37.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.07). Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 8.34% and a net margin of 21.82%.The business had revenue of $861.76 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $782.90 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.03 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.21 EPS for the current fiscal 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.