Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Acquires 29,708 Shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its stake in Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG - Free Report) by 5.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 536,718 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 29,708 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned 0.19% of Essential Utilities worth $21,216,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WTRG. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Essential Utilities by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,061,135 shares of the company's stock worth $1,091,820,000 after purchasing an additional 2,245,256 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its stake in Essential Utilities by 31.2% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 6,726,215 shares of the company's stock worth $244,296,000 after purchasing an additional 1,597,672 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Essential Utilities by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,317,312 shares of the company's stock worth $156,526,000 after purchasing an additional 11,336 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Essential Utilities by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,690,116 shares of the company's stock worth $134,025,000 after purchasing an additional 236,250 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Essential Utilities by 22.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,331,090 shares of the company's stock worth $120,985,000 after purchasing an additional 601,026 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.78% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on WTRG shares. Wall Street Zen raised Essential Utilities from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday, April 20th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Essential Utilities from $47.00 to $46.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Essential Utilities currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $43.50.

Essential Utilities Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of WTRG stock traded down $0.29 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $36.82. The company had a trading volume of 1,735,877 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,541,958. Essential Utilities Inc. has a 12 month low of $33.18 and a 12 month high of $41.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.57. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.69. The company has a market cap of $10.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.79.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 12th. The company reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $783.63 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $713.80 million. Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 9.81% and a net margin of 27.17%. Essential Utilities's quarterly revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essential Utilities Company Profile

Essential Utilities, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates regulated utilities that provide water, wastewater, or natural gas services in the United States. The company operates through Regulated Water and Regulated Natural Gas segments. It offers water services through operating and maintenance contract with municipal authorities and other parties.