Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) Increases Dividend to $0.33 Per Share

Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 1st, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th will be given a dividend of 0.3255 per share on Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $1.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.30%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 12th. This is a boost from Essential Utilities’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31.

Essential Utilities has raised its dividend by an average of 7.0% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 32 years. Essential Utilities has a dividend payout ratio of 61.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Essential Utilities to earn $2.11 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.30 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 61.6%.

Essential Utilities Stock Down 1.2 %

WTRG stock opened at $39.51 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $10.81 billion, a PE ratio of 18.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.50 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.58. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $38.68 and its 200 day moving average is $37.20. Essential Utilities has a one year low of $32.07 and a one year high of $41.78.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The company reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.30 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $434.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $442.76 million. Essential Utilities had a net margin of 28.74% and a return on equity of 8.16%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.34 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Essential Utilities will post 1.96 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Essential Utilities news, CAO Robert A. Rubin sold 2,342 shares of Essential Utilities stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.43, for a total transaction of $87,661.06. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 53,391 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,998,425.13. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.21% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on WTRG. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Essential Utilities from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Essential Utilities from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Essential Utilities from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.40.

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.