Versor Investments LP Makes New $1.43 Million Investment in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 37,291 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,430,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WTRG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 587.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,071,929 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,472,000 after purchasing an additional 3,479,762 shares in the last quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Essential Utilities during the third quarter worth about $128,137,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 25.5% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,972,565 shares of the company’s stock worth $354,057,000 after acquiring an additional 1,822,306 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 1,572.4% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,271,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,212,000 after acquiring an additional 1,195,189 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 121.8% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,591,706 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,697,000 after acquiring an additional 873,990 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Essential Utilities Trading Up 0.6%

NYSE:WTRG opened at $37.70 on Tuesday. 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 $36.32 and a one year high of $42.37. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.25. The stock has a market cap of $10.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.14 and a beta of 0.67.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $861.76 million during 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.03 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essential Utilities Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be issued a $0.3426 dividend. This represents a $1.37 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 12th. Essential Utilities’s payout ratio is currently 69.54%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WTRG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Argus upgraded Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. UBS Group set a $41.00 price target on Essential Utilities in a research note on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Essential Utilities presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $42.40.

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.