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Essential Utilities (WTRG) Competitors

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$36.82 -0.29 (-0.78%)
Closing price 07/3/2025 03:54 PM Eastern
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$36.82 0.00 (0.00%)
As of 07/3/2025 04:58 PM Eastern
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WTRG vs. LNT, AWK, AWR, CMS, CWT, DUK, ED, IDA, PPL, and WEC

Should you be buying Essential Utilities stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Essential Utilities include Alliant Energy (LNT), American Water Works (AWK), American States Water (AWR), CMS Energy (CMS), California Water Service Group (CWT), Duke Energy (DUK), Consolidated Edison (ED), IDACORP (IDA), PPL (PPL), and WEC Energy Group (WEC). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.

Essential Utilities vs. Its Competitors

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) and Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, media sentiment, dividends and earnings.

Alliant Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Essential Utilities pays an annual dividend of $1.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Alliant Energy pays out 70.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Essential Utilities pays out 58.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Alliant Energy has increased its dividend for 22 consecutive years and Essential Utilities has increased its dividend for 32 consecutive years. Essential Utilities is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Alliant Energy presently has a consensus target price of $63.95, indicating a potential upside of 3.68%. Essential Utilities has a consensus target price of $43.50, indicating a potential upside of 18.14%. Given Essential Utilities' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Essential Utilities is more favorable than Alliant Energy.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Alliant Energy
1 Sell rating(s)
5 Hold rating(s)
4 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.30
Essential Utilities
0 Sell rating(s)
1 Hold rating(s)
5 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.83

In the previous week, Essential Utilities had 2 more articles in the media than Alliant Energy. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Essential Utilities and 10 mentions for Alliant Energy. Alliant Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.48 beat Essential Utilities' score of 1.01 indicating that Alliant Energy is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Alliant Energy
8 Very Positive mention(s)
2 Positive mention(s)
0 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Essential Utilities
7 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
4 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

Alliant Energy has a beta of 0.56, indicating that its stock price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Essential Utilities has a beta of 0.79, indicating that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

79.9% of Alliant Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.8% of Essential Utilities shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Alliant Energy shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Essential Utilities shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Essential Utilities has a net margin of 27.17% compared to Alliant Energy's net margin of 18.26%. Alliant Energy's return on equity of 12.01% beat Essential Utilities' return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Alliant Energy18.26% 12.01% 3.71%
Essential Utilities 27.17%9.81%3.45%

Alliant Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Essential Utilities. Essential Utilities is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alliant Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Alliant Energy$3.98B3.98$690M$2.9021.27
Essential Utilities$2.09B4.95$595.31M$2.2316.51

Summary

Essential Utilities beats Alliant Energy on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding WTRG and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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WTRG vs. The Competition

MetricEssential UtilitiesUTIL IndustryUtilities SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$10.32B$7.26B$15.82B$20.64B
Dividend Yield3.51%2.64%5.59%3.74%
P/E Ratio16.5118.5620.4528.10
Price / Sales4.954.4028.9054.30
Price / Cash11.1913.1919.1222.31
Price / Book1.632.352.164.59
Net Income$595.31M$420.94M$751.09M$986.06M
7 Day Performance-0.34%2.12%1.21%2.79%
1 Month Performance-1.47%3.55%3.39%5.41%
1 Year Performance0.22%8.71%16.85%14.62%

Essential Utilities Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
WTRG
Essential Utilities
4.8475 of 5 stars
$36.82
-0.8%
$43.50
+18.1%
+0.1%$10.32B$2.09B16.513,291News Coverage
Positive News
LNT
Alliant Energy
4.3722 of 5 stars
$60.47
+0.2%
$63.95
+5.8%
+21.4%$15.53B$3.98B20.852,998Positive News
AWK
American Water Works
4.3319 of 5 stars
$139.15
+0.9%
$143.22
+2.9%
+9.3%$27.14B$4.68B25.356,500Positive News
AWR
American States Water
4.0389 of 5 stars
$76.57
+0.2%
$77.50
+1.2%
+7.8%$2.95B$595.46M23.56810
CMS
CMS Energy
4.3544 of 5 stars
$69.29
+0.4%
$77.00
+11.1%
+19.6%$20.73B$7.52B20.569,070Positive News
CWT
California Water Service Group
4.9078 of 5 stars
$45.48
+0.0%
$58.00
+27.5%
-4.3%$2.71B$1.04B19.951,278Positive News
DUK
Duke Energy
4.5012 of 5 stars
$118.02
+0.9%
$126.94
+7.6%
+17.8%$91.73B$30.36B19.5727,900Positive News
Analyst Forecast
ED
Consolidated Edison
4.6074 of 5 stars
$100.40
+2.3%
$105.27
+4.9%
+12.8%$36.17B$15.26B18.5614,300Positive News
IDA
IDACORP
3.8109 of 5 stars
$115.39
+0.8%
$122.86
+6.5%
+25.7%$6.23B$1.83B20.502,141News Coverage
Positive News
PPL
PPL
3.7172 of 5 stars
$33.87
+0.9%
$36.80
+8.7%
+22.6%$25.04B$8.46B25.096,530News Coverage
Positive News
Analyst Forecast
WEC
WEC Energy Group
4.3933 of 5 stars
$104.22
+1.1%
$106.33
+2.0%
+34.5%$33.26B$8.60B20.327,020Positive News

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This page (NYSE:WTRG) was last updated on 7/4/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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