82,000 Shares in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG Purchased by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 82,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,302,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WTRG. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Essential Utilities in the fourth quarter valued at $154,176,000. Amundi grew its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 33.4% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 6,335,695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $243,023,000 after purchasing an additional 1,586,622 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 611.4% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,744,679 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,258,000 after acquiring an additional 1,499,450 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its position in Essential Utilities by 1,651.9% in the fourth quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 1,551,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,517,000 after acquiring an additional 1,462,971 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Essential Utilities by 3,650.7% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,255,212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,150,000 after acquiring an additional 1,221,746 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on WTRG shares. UBS Group raised Essential Utilities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $41.00 to $43.00 in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Argus raised shares of Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Essential Utilities presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.80.

Essential Utilities Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WTRG opened at $38.58 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $10.94 billion, a PE ratio of 19.58 and a beta of 0.66. Essential Utilities Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.10 and a fifty-two week high of $42.37. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $861.76 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $782.90 million. Essential Utilities had a net margin of 21.82% and a return on equity of 8.34%. The business’s revenue was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.03 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.21 EPS for the current year.

Essential Utilities Profile

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.