State Street Corp Has $502.60 Million Position in Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Key Points

• State Street increased its Essential Utilities position by 5.5% in the second quarter, bringing its holdings to 13.12 million shares valued at approximately $502.6 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 74.78% of WTRG.
• Analyst sentiment remains favorable, with a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.75, compared with the reported share price of $40.15.
• Essential Utilities slightly exceeded quarterly EPS expectations and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.3606, representing an annualized dividend of $1.44 and a yield of about 3.6%.

State Street Corp raised its position in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG - Free Report) by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,119,170 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 687,688 shares during the period. State Street Corp owned approximately 4.62% of Essential Utilities worth $502,595,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Essential Utilities during the second quarter worth about $1,280,829,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Essential Utilities in the fourth quarter valued at about $154,176,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of Essential Utilities in the second quarter worth about $134,247,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Essential Utilities in the second quarter worth about $92,467,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of Essential Utilities by 611.4% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,744,679 shares of the company's stock worth $70,258,000 after purchasing an additional 1,499,450 shares during the period. 74.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WTRG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Essential Utilities from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 10th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Essential Utilities from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Essential Utilities to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, July 4th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Essential Utilities has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $43.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Essential Utilities

In other news, insider Colleen Arnold sold 2,855 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.55, for a total transaction of $112,915.25. Following the sale, the insider owned 17,347 shares in the company, valued at $686,073.85. This represents a 14.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.36% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Essential Utilities Stock Performance

Shares of WTRG opened at $40.15 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.48, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.64. Essential Utilities Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.10 and a 12 month high of $42.51. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20.

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

Essential Utilities Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 11th were paid a $0.3606 dividend. This is a positive change from Essential Utilities's previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 11th. Essential Utilities's dividend payout ratio is 73.47%.

Essential Utilities Company Profile

Essential Utilities, Inc NYSE: WTRG is a regulated utility company that provides essential water, wastewater and natural gas services to residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers. Its water operations include the treatment and distribution of drinking water, while its wastewater operations collect and treat sewage. The company's natural gas business distributes gas through regulated utility networks.

The company operates primarily through its Aqua and Peoples businesses.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding WTRG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.