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NYSE:WTRG

Essential Utilities (WTRG) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Essential Utilities logo
$38.30 +0.06 (+0.14%)
Closing price 09/12/2025 03:59 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$38.32 +0.02 (+0.05%)
As of 09/12/2025 04:20 PM Eastern
Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more.

About Essential Utilities Stock (NYSE:WTRG)

Key Stats

Today's Range
$38.02
$38.43
50-Day Range
$36.71
$39.84
52-Week Range
$33.18
$41.65
Volume
1.77 million shs
Average Volume
1.86 million shs
Market Capitalization
$10.74 billion
P/E Ratio
16.44
Dividend Yield
3.58%
Price Target
$44.50
Consensus Rating
Moderate Buy

Company Overview

Essential Utilities Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

See Top-Rated MarketRank™ Stocks
98th Percentile Overall Score

WTRG MarketRank™: 

Essential Utilities scored higher than 98% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 3rd out of 98 stocks in the utilities sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

  • Consensus Rating

    Essential Utilities has received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.71, and is based on 5 buy ratings, 2 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

  • Upside Potential

    Essential Utilities has a consensus price target of $44.50, representing about 16.2% upside from its current price of $38.30.

  • Amount of Analyst Coverage

    Essential Utilities has only been the subject of 3 research reports in the past 90 days.

  • Read more about Essential Utilities' stock forecast and price target.
  • Earnings Growth

    Earnings for Essential Utilities are expected to grow by 7.04% in the coming year, from $1.99 to $2.13 per share.

  • Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

    The P/E ratio of Essential Utilities is 16.44, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 280.42.

  • Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

    The P/E ratio of Essential Utilities is 16.44, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Utilities sector average P/E ratio of about 52.12.

  • Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

    Essential Utilities has a PEG Ratio of 3.51. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

  • Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

    Essential Utilities has a P/B Ratio of 1.70. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

  • Read more about Essential Utilities' valuation and earnings.
  • Percentage of Shares Shorted

    1.75% of the float of Essential Utilities has been sold short.
  • Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

    Essential Utilities has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.6, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.
  • Change versus previous month

    Short interest in Essential Utilities has recently increased by 21.64%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.
  • Dividend Leadership

    Essential Utilities is a leading dividend payer. It pays a dividend yield of 3.61%, putting its dividend yield in the top 25% of dividend-paying stocks.

  • Dividend Growth

    Essential Utilities has been increasing its dividend for 32 years.

  • Dividend Coverage

    The dividend payout ratio of Essential Utilities is 58.80%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

  • Dividend Sustainability

    Based on earnings estimates, Essential Utilities will have a dividend payout ratio of 64.32% next year. This indicates that Essential Utilities will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

  • Read more about Essential Utilities' dividend.
  • Percentage of Shares Shorted

    1.75% of the float of Essential Utilities has been sold short.
  • Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

    Essential Utilities has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.6, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.
  • Change versus previous month

    Short interest in Essential Utilities has recently increased by 21.64%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.
  • News Sentiment

    Essential Utilities has a news sentiment score of 1.20. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.85 average news sentiment score of Utilities companies.
  • News Coverage This Week

    MarketBeat has tracked 16 news articles for Essential Utilities this week, compared to 10 articles on an average week.
  • Search Interest

    Only 5 people have searched for WTRG on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -50% compared to the previous 30 days.
  • MarketBeat Follows

    11 people have added Essential Utilities to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 450% compared to the previous 30 days.
  • Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

    In the past three months, Essential Utilities insiders have not sold or bought any company stock.

  • Percentage Held by Insiders

    Only 0.21% of the stock of Essential Utilities is held by insiders.

  • Percentage Held by Institutions

    74.78% of the stock of Essential Utilities is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

  • Read more about Essential Utilities' insider trading history.
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WTRG Stock News Headlines

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WTRG Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

Essential Utilities' stock was trading at $36.32 on January 1st, 2025. Since then, WTRG shares have increased by 5.4% and is now trading at $38.2950.

Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) released its earnings results on Thursday, July, 31st. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.09. Essential Utilities's revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis.
Read the conference call transcript
.

Top institutional investors of Essential Utilities include Vanguard Group Inc. (10.84%), State Street Corp (4.62%), Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (4.16%) and Nordea Investment Management AB (2.55%). Insiders that own company stock include Robert A Rubin, Chris Franklin, Ellen T Ruff and Colleen Arnold.
View institutional ownership trends
.

Shares of WTRG stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that Essential Utilities investors own include Humana (HUM), American Water Works (AWK), Waste Connections (WCN), Voyager Therapeutics (VYGR), The RMR Group (RMR), DiamondRock Hospitality (DRH) and AU Optronics (AUOTY).

Company Calendar

Last Earnings
7/31/2025
Record date for 9/2 Dividend
8/12/2025
Ex-Dividend for 9/2 Dividend
8/12/2025
Dividend Payable
9/02/2025
Today
9/12/2025
Next Earnings (Estimated)
11/03/2025
Fiscal Year End
12/31/2025

Industry, Sector and Symbol

Stock Exchange
NYSE
Sector
Utilities
Industry
UTIL - WATER SPLY
Sub-Industry
Utilities
Current Symbol
NYSE:WTRG
CIK
78128
Employees
3,291
Year Founded
N/A

Price Target and Rating

High Price Target
$47.00
Low Price Target
$41.00
Potential Upside/Downside
+16.2%
Consensus Rating
Moderate Buy
Rating Score (0-4)
2.71
Research Coverage
7 Analysts

Profitability

EPS (Trailing Twelve Months)
$2.33
Trailing P/E Ratio
16.44
Forward P/E Ratio
19.24
P/E Growth
3.48
Net Income
$595.31 million
Net Margins
27.62%
Pretax Margin
26.38%
Return on Equity
10.10%
Return on Assets
3.56%

Debt

Debt-to-Equity Ratio
1.13
Current Ratio
0.73
Quick Ratio
0.58

Sales & Book Value

Annual Sales
$2.09 billion
Price / Sales
5.15
Cash Flow
$3.34 per share
Price / Cash Flow
11.45
Book Value
$22.57 per share
Price / Book
1.70

Miscellaneous

Outstanding Shares
280,470,000
Free Float
279,880,000
Market Cap
$10.74 billion
Optionable
Optionable
Beta
0.83
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This page (NYSE:WTRG) was last updated on 9/13/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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