Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.05 EPS

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) posted its earnings results on Tuesday. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.05, Zacks reports. Essential Utilities had a net margin of 21.79% and a return on equity of 8.42%. The firm had revenue of $508.26 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $450.44 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis.

Essential Utilities Stock Performance

WTRG stock traded up $0.56 on Thursday, hitting $45.69. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,169,851 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,265,183. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $40.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $39.50. Essential Utilities has a 1 year low of $36.10 and a 1 year high of $46.36. The stock has a market cap of $12.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20.

Essential Utilities Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 10th will be issued a $0.3606 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 10th. Essential Utilities’s payout ratio is presently 73.47%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Essential Utilities from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 16th. Barclays lifted their target price on Essential Utilities from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Essential Utilities from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Essential Utilities news, insider Colleen Arnold sold 2,855 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.55, for a total transaction of $112,915.25. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 17,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $686,073.85. This trade represents a 14.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Essential Utilities

Essential Utilities, Inc is a regulated utility company that provides water, wastewater and natural gas services to residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers. Through its Aqua and Peoples operations, the company owns and operates water and wastewater systems, natural gas distribution networks and related infrastructure. Its services include the treatment and delivery of drinking water, collection and treatment of wastewater, and the distribution of natural gas.

The company serves customers across several U.S.