Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Sells 56,263 Shares of Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Key Points

• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS reduced its stake in Essential Utilities by 10.1% in the first quarter, selling 56,263 shares and ending with 503,182 shares valued at about $20.3 million.
• Analysts remain mixed on WTRG: UBS lifted its price target to $46 and Argus upgraded the stock to strong-buy, while Wall Street Zen cut it to sell. Overall, the consensus rating is Moderate Buy with an average target price of $43.40.
• Essential Utilities reported Q1 earnings of $0.83 per share, missing estimates, but revenue came in at $861.76 million and rose 10% year over year. The stock last traded around $38.60, near its 200-day average and below its 52-week high of $42.37.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS trimmed its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG - Free Report) by 10.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 503,182 shares of the company's stock after selling 56,263 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS owned 0.18% of Essential Utilities worth $20,263,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. GoalVest Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Essential Utilities during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Fideuram Asset Management Ireland dac purchased a new position in shares of Essential Utilities in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Essential Utilities in the 1st quarter worth about $27,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new position in Essential Utilities during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Motiv8 Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Essential Utilities during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. 74.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Essential Utilities from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Argus raised shares of Essential Utilities to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Essential Utilities to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, July 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $43.40.

Essential Utilities Stock Performance

Shares of WTRG opened at $38.60 on Monday. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $37.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.59 and a beta of 0.65. 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 52-week low of $36.10 and a 52-week high of $42.37.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.83 EPS 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 revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.03 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.21 EPS 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.

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