Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Boosts Holdings in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) by 713.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 113,084 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 99,186 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in Essential Utilities were worth $4,554,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. GoalVest Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Essential Utilities during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Fideuram Asset Management Ireland dac acquired a new stake in Essential Utilities during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd purchased a new position in Essential Utilities during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Motiv8 Investments LLC purchased a new position in Essential Utilities during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton raised its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 31,466.7% in the fourth quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 947 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 944 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.78% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on WTRG shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Argus raised shares of Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Essential Utilities from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Essential Utilities to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.40.

Essential Utilities Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WTRG opened at $39.33 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $11.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.96 and a beta of 0.65. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.10 and a 52 week high of $42.37. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.77.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last released its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $861.76 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $782.90 million. Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 8.34% and a net margin of 21.82%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.03 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.21 EPS for the current 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.