Epoch Investment Partners Inc. Sells 41,138 Shares of Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lessened its stake in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 3.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,136,823 shares of the company’s stock after selling 41,138 shares during the quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. owned approximately 0.40% of Essential Utilities worth $43,609,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ raised its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ now owns 83,188 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,191,000 after purchasing an additional 262 shares during the period. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 8,604 shares of the company’s stock worth $322,000 after purchasing an additional 312 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 43.6% in the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,114 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 338 shares during the period. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 26,080 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,041,000 after purchasing an additional 356 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings in Essential Utilities by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 8,996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $345,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WTRG. UBS Group raised shares of Essential Utilities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $41.00 to $43.00 in a report on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Argus raised shares of Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.80.

Essential Utilities Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of WTRG stock opened at $37.52 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.84. Essential Utilities Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.10 and a 1 year high of $42.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.04 and a beta of 0.66.

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