A. D. Beadell Investment Counsel Inc. Invests $1.43 Million in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

A. D. Beadell Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 37,345 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,432,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Synergy Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 351.4% during the 3rd quarter. Synergy Asset Management LLC now owns 234,179 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,057,000 after purchasing an additional 182,301 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 25.5% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,972,565 shares of the company’s stock worth $354,057,000 after purchasing an additional 1,822,306 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 39.8% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 99,453 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,968,000 after buying an additional 28,329 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 16.4% in the third quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 966,685 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,571,000 after buying an additional 135,899 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Essential Utilities by 1.1% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,709,048 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,091,000 after buying an additional 29,904 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on WTRG shares. Barclays set a $38.00 target price on shares of Essential Utilities and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Northcoast Research raised shares of Essential Utilities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Argus upgraded Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Essential Utilities has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.20.

Essential Utilities Trading Down 1.0%

WTRG stock opened at $40.37 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $39.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $11.44 billion, a PE ratio of 18.27 and a beta of 0.82. Essential Utilities Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.32 and a fifty-two week high of $42.37.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.11. Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 9.18% and a net margin of 24.91%.The firm had revenue of $699.11 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $611.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.67 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essential Utilities Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be issued a $0.3426 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 12th. This represents a $1.37 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Essential Utilities’s payout ratio is currently 61.99%.

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.