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Essential Utilities (WTRG) Competitors

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$40.64 +0.57 (+1.41%)
Closing price 10/7/2025 03:59 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$40.63 -0.01 (-0.01%)
As of 10/7/2025 06:34 PM Eastern
Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more.

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

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

Alliant Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Essential Utilities pays an annual dividend of $1.37 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Alliant Energy pays out 62.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Essential Utilities pays out 58.8% 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 raised its dividend for 22 consecutive years and Essential Utilities has raised 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 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$3.98B4.39$690M$3.2421.01
Essential Utilities$2.09B5.46$595.31M$2.3317.44

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

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

Alliant Energy currently has a consensus target price of $66.00, suggesting a potential downside of 3.04%. Essential Utilities has a consensus target price of $44.00, suggesting a potential upside of 8.28%. 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)
4 Hold rating(s)
5 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.40
Essential Utilities
0 Sell rating(s)
3 Hold rating(s)
5 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.63

In the previous week, Essential Utilities had 3 more articles in the media than Alliant Energy. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for Essential Utilities and 12 mentions for Alliant Energy. Alliant Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.37 beat Essential Utilities' score of 0.76 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
9 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
2 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Essential Utilities
7 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
2 Neutral mention(s)
4 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

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
Alliant Energy20.07% 12.25% 3.75%
Essential Utilities 27.62%10.10%3.56%

Summary

Alliant Energy and Essential Utilities tied by winning 9 of the 18 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$11.24B$7.28B$16.94B$22.14B
Dividend Yield3.42%2.72%4.63%3.57%
P/E Ratio17.4418.6657.2229.64
Price / Sales5.464.5436.9295.37
Price / Cash12.0913.1819.2124.65
Price / Book1.802.362.264.61
Net Income$595.31M$420.94M$748.50M$1.01B
7 Day Performance4.70%1.73%7.69%-0.14%
1 Month Performance6.00%1.52%10.87%2.28%
1 Year Performance6.10%2.07%133.89%14.59%

Essential Utilities Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
WTRG
Essential Utilities
4.7009 of 5 stars
$40.64
+1.4%
$44.00
+8.3%
+6.3%$11.24B$2.09B17.443,291
LNT
Alliant Energy
4.0374 of 5 stars
$66.80
+0.7%
$66.00
-1.2%
+14.7%$17.04B$3.98B20.622,998Positive News
AWK
American Water Works
4.6285 of 5 stars
$137.97
+1.8%
$141.13
+2.3%
+4.0%$26.45B$4.68B24.866,700Positive News
AWR
American States Water
3.8972 of 5 stars
$70.75
+0.6%
$77.50
+9.5%
-13.6%$2.71B$595.46M21.64810
CMS
CMS Energy
4.1733 of 5 stars
$72.35
+0.7%
$77.36
+6.9%
+5.7%$21.50B$7.52B21.418,324Positive News
CWT
California Water Service Group
4.7099 of 5 stars
$45.36
+1.7%
$56.00
+23.4%
-10.6%$2.66B$1.04B19.811,278
DTE
DTE Energy
4.3049 of 5 stars
$140.02
+0.5%
$144.00
+2.8%
+13.5%$28.91B$12.46B20.159,500
DUK
Duke Energy
4.4487 of 5 stars
$123.58
+1.7%
$132.25
+7.0%
+13.9%$94.54B$30.36B20.0926,413Positive News
Analyst Forecast
ED
Consolidated Edison
4.2804 of 5 stars
$98.83
+1.2%
$105.91
+7.2%
-1.1%$35.21B$15.26B17.9415,097Analyst Forecast
OGE
OGE Energy
3.9699 of 5 stars
$45.93
+1.1%
$47.00
+2.3%
+15.5%$9.15B$2.99B18.822,291Positive News
WEC
WEC Energy Group
4.1979 of 5 stars
$113.24
+1.1%
$109.30
-3.5%
+22.3%$36.06B$9.31B21.697,017Positive News
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This page (NYSE:WTRG) was last updated on 10/8/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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