Unitil Corporation (NYSE:UTL) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of $58.67 According to Brokerages

Shares of Unitil Corporation (NYSE:UTL) have received an average rating of “Hold” from the six analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $58.67.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on UTL. Huntington initiated coverage on Unitil in a report on Monday, September 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $63.00 target price on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut Unitil from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 8th.

Institutional Trading of Unitil

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Allworth Financial LP acquired a new position in shares of Unitil during the second quarter worth about $25,000. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in Unitil by 196.1% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 610 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Nykredit A S purchased a new position in Unitil in the second quarter worth approximately $59,000. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Unitil by 502.6% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,603 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $84,000 after acquiring an additional 1,337 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Wyoming acquired a new position in Unitil during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $139,000. 76.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Unitil Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of UTL opened at $53.21 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $52.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $52.61. Unitil has a one year low of $46.91 and a one year high of $57.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $970.55 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.79 and a beta of 0.26.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.03. Unitil had a return on equity of 9.53% and a net margin of 9.49%. The company had revenue of $117.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $113.19 million. Equities research analysts forecast that Unitil will post 3.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Unitil Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th were paid a dividend of $0.4750 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 17th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. Unitil’s payout ratio is 59.94%.

Unitil Company Profile

Unitil Corporation is a regulated public utility holding company that provides electric and natural gas distribution services in New England. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company delivers electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers, while maintaining the local infrastructure required to support safe and reliable service.

Unitil’s electric operations serve communities in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Its natural gas businesses provide distribution service primarily in New Hampshire and the greater Fitchburg area of Massachusetts.