AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc Decreases Position in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc lowered its stake in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 22.4% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 622,528 shares of the company’s stock after selling 179,390 shares during the quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc’s holdings in Essential Utilities were worth $25,069,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new position in Essential Utilities during the 4th quarter worth approximately $638,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in Essential Utilities by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 12,861 shares of the company’s stock worth $508,000 after acquiring an additional 928 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its position in Essential Utilities by 1.8% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 29,674 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,173,000 after acquiring an additional 530 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Essential Utilities by 122.7% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 943,797 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,308,000 after acquiring an additional 519,933 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth grew its position in Essential Utilities by 4.9% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 22,322 shares of the company’s stock valued at $882,000 after acquiring an additional 1,044 shares in the last quarter. 74.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Essential Utilities Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE:WTRG opened at $36.64 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.95. Essential Utilities Inc. has a one year low of $36.10 and a one year high of $42.37. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.75. The stock has a market cap of $10.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.60 and a beta of 0.66.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by ($0.07). Essential Utilities had a net margin of 21.82% and a return on equity of 8.34%. The business had revenue of $861.76 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $782.90 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.03 EPS. Essential Utilities’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essential Utilities Company 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.