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Essential Utilities (WTRG) Competitors

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$41.24 -0.07 (-0.16%)
Closing price 03:59 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$41.69 +0.45 (+1.10%)
As of 07:18 PM Eastern
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WTRG vs. LNT, AWK, AWR, CMS, CWT, DTE, DUK, ED, OGE, 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), DTE Energy (DTE), Duke Energy (DUK), Consolidated Edison (ED), OGE Energy (OGE), and WEC Energy Group (WEC). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.

Essential Utilities vs. Its Competitors

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

In the previous week, Essential Utilities had 11 more articles in the media than Alliant Energy. MarketBeat recorded 28 mentions for Essential Utilities and 17 mentions for Alliant Energy. Alliant Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.23 beat Essential Utilities' score of 0.50 indicating that Alliant Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Essential Utilities
6 Very Positive mention(s)
5 Positive mention(s)
3 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral
Alliant Energy
9 Very Positive mention(s)
5 Positive mention(s)
0 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

Essential Utilities has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alliant Energy has a beta of 0.54, indicating that its stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Essential Utilities currently has a consensus target price of $45.17, suggesting a potential upside of 9.53%. Alliant Energy has a consensus target price of $68.56, suggesting a potential downside of 0.60%. Given Essential Utilities' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Essential Utilities is more favorable than Alliant Energy.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Essential Utilities
0 Sell rating(s)
2 Hold rating(s)
5 Buy rating(s)
1 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.88
Alliant Energy
1 Sell rating(s)
3 Hold rating(s)
6 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.50

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
Essential Utilities$2.09B5.54$595.31M$2.3317.70
Alliant Energy$3.98B4.45$690M$3.2421.29

Essential Utilities has a net margin of 27.62% compared to Alliant Energy's net margin of 20.07%. Alliant Energy's return on equity of 12.25% beat Essential Utilities' return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Essential Utilities27.62% 10.10% 3.56%
Alliant Energy 20.07%12.25%3.75%

Essential Utilities pays an annual dividend of $1.37 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Alliant Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Essential Utilities pays out 58.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Alliant Energy pays out 62.7% 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. Essential Utilities has raised its dividend for 32 consecutive years and Alliant Energy has raised its dividend for 22 consecutive years. Essential Utilities is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

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

Summary

Essential Utilities and Alliant Energy tied by winning 10 of the 20 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$11.58B$7.49B$17.15B$22.01B
Dividend Yield3.32%2.58%4.54%3.57%
P/E Ratio17.7019.2519.3433.18
Price / Sales5.544.6832.3061.67
Price / Cash12.4613.8019.3624.54
Price / Book1.832.442.324.66
Net Income$595.31M$420.94M$748.50M$1.01B
7 Day Performance-0.15%0.82%0.35%2.22%
1 Month Performance9.07%4.58%8.47%1.17%
1 Year Performance4.58%5.85%49.20%13.47%

Essential Utilities Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
WTRG
Essential Utilities
4.741 of 5 stars
$41.24
-0.2%
$45.17
+9.5%
+2.5%$11.58B$2.09B17.703,291Trending News
Dividend Announcement
Analyst Upgrade
Analyst Revision
LNT
Alliant Energy
3.9695 of 5 stars
$68.07
+0.7%
$68.00
-0.1%
+10.8%$17.37B$3.98B21.012,998Positive News
Analyst Upgrade
AWK
American Water Works
4.5247 of 5 stars
$144.02
+0.6%
$145.00
+0.7%
+0.3%$27.94B$4.68B25.956,700Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
Analyst Forecast
AWR
American States Water
3.6318 of 5 stars
$75.58
+0.4%
$77.50
+2.5%
-9.4%$2.90B$595.46M23.11810News Coverage
Positive News
Analyst Forecast
CMS
CMS Energy
4.1485 of 5 stars
$74.72
0.0%
$78.00
+4.4%
+3.4%$22.38B$8.02B22.118,324Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
Dividend Announcement
Analyst Forecast
CWT
California Water Service Group
4.6362 of 5 stars
$48.63
+0.5%
$56.00
+15.2%
-5.8%$2.88B$1.04B21.241,278News Coverage
Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
Analyst Forecast
DTE
DTE Energy
4.6366 of 5 stars
$141.99
+0.3%
$146.08
+2.9%
+8.9%$29.37B$14.20B20.439,500Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
Analyst Forecast
DUK
Duke Energy
4.3252 of 5 stars
$128.55
+0.9%
$136.77
+6.4%
+5.5%$99.07B$30.36B20.9026,413Trending News
Analyst Forecast
ED
Consolidated Edison
4.0907 of 5 stars
$101.14
+0.1%
$105.92
+4.7%
-6.2%$36.45B$16.15B18.3615,097Positive News
Analyst Forecast
OGE
OGE Energy
4.581 of 5 stars
$46.47
+0.1%
$47.00
+1.1%
+12.6%$9.35B$2.99B19.052,291Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
Analyst Forecast
WEC
WEC Energy Group
4.363 of 5 stars
$116.84
+0.6%
$114.64
-1.9%
+16.5%$37.40B$8.60B22.387,017Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
Analyst Forecast

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This page (NYSE:WTRG) was last updated on 10/24/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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