Unitil Co. (NYSE:UTL) Short Interest Up 63.0% in May

Unitil Co. (NYSE:UTL - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 239,600 shares, a growth of 63.0% from the April 30th total of 147,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 64,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.7 days. Currently, 1.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Unitil

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sterling Capital Management LLC increased its position in Unitil by 798.2% during the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 512 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 455 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Unitil by 27.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 887 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of Unitil during the first quarter worth $99,000. AlphaQuest LLC bought a new position in shares of Unitil in the 1st quarter valued at $100,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Unitil by 8,333.3% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,024 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $110,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. 76.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Guggenheim restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Unitil in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th.

Unitil Price Performance

UTL traded down $0.11 during trading on Monday, hitting $54.72. 61,341 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 62,971. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $56.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $56.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Unitil has a twelve month low of $48.94 and a twelve month high of $63.52. The company has a market cap of $889.30 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.68 and a beta of 0.67.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The utilities provider reported $1.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.78 by ($0.04). Unitil had a net margin of 9.52% and a return on equity of 9.36%. The business had revenue of $207.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $193.03 million. Equities research analysts forecast that Unitil will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Unitil Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th were issued a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.29%. Unitil's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 61.43%.

Unitil Company Profile

Unitil Corporation, a public utility holding company, engages in the distribution of electricity and natural gas. It operates through two segments, Utility Electric Operations, Utility Gas Operations. The company distributes electricity in the southeastern seacoast and state capital regions of New Hampshire, and the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts; and distributes natural gas in southeastern New Hampshire and portions of southern and central Maine, including the city of Portland and the Lewiston-Auburn area, as well as electricity and natural gas in the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts.