Legal & General Group Plc Makes New $134.25 Million Investment in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc acquired 3.5 million shares of Essential Utilities in the second quarter, valued at approximately $134.25 million and representing a 1.23% stake. Institutional investors collectively own 74.78% of the company.
• Analysts maintain a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating with a $43.00 average price target; UBS raised its target to $46, while Barclays increased its target to $40 but retained an underweight rating.
• Essential Utilities beat quarterly EPS estimates by $0.01, reporting $0.38 per share, while revenue rose 3.1% year over year to $530.85 million. The company also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.3606 per share, implying a 3.6% yield.

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,504,219 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $134,247,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned 1.23% of Essential Utilities at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 262 shares during the last quarter. Essential Partners LLC grew its stake in Essential Utilities by 29.9% during the 1st quarter. Essential Partners LLC now owns 1,234 shares of the company's stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 284 shares during the last quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC increased its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 8,604 shares of the company's stock valued at $322,000 after purchasing an additional 312 shares during the period. Sigma Planning Corp increased its holdings in shares of Essential Utilities by 5.3% in the first quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 6,251 shares of the company's stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 315 shares during the period. Finally, Rakuten Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,881 shares of the company's stock worth $460,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares during the last quarter. 74.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WTRG has been the subject of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Essential Utilities to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, July 4th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Essential Utilities from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $43.00.

Essential Utilities Stock Down 0.6%

Essential Utilities stock opened at $40.52 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $11.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.68 and a beta of 0.64. Essential Utilities Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.10 and a 52 week high of $42.37. The business's 50-day moving average price is $39.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 8.23% and a net margin of 21.60%.The company had revenue of $530.85 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $538.90 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 earnings per share. Essential Utilities's revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Essential Utilities Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.3606 per share. This is a positive change from Essential Utilities's previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 11th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Essential Utilities's payout ratio is presently 73.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Essential Utilities

In related news, insider Colleen Arnold sold 2,855 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.55, for a total value of $112,915.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 17,347 shares in the company, valued at $686,073.85. The trade was a 14.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Essential Utilities

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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