Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) saw an upside of 0.16% to close Friday at $37.51 after adding $0.06 on the day. The 5-day average trading volume is 946,900 shares of the company’s common stock. It has gained $39.47 in the past week and touched a new high 1 time within the past 5 days. An average of 1,025,180 shares of the company has been traded in the last 20 days, and the 50-day average volume stands at 1,074,796.
WTRG’s 1-month performance is -11.55% or -$3.34 on its low of $37.12 reached on 08/18/23. The company’s shares have touched a 52-week low of $37.43 and high of $52.42, with the stock’s rally to the 52-week high happening on 01/12/23. YTD, WTRG has lost -21.41% or -$10.22 and has reached a new high 4 times. However, the current price is down -28.45% from the 52-week high price.
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Insider Transactions
WTRG stock investors last saw insider trading activity on Jun 14.Arnold Colleen (President) most recently sold 1,244 shares at $41.84 per share on Jun 14. This transaction cost the insider $52,049. Director, Ruff Ellen T, sold 8,560 shares at a price of $47.96 on Nov 28.
Valuation Metrics
WTRG stock has a beta of 0.79. Moving on to other valuation ratios, the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is 4.30 while the price-to-book (PB) in the most recent quarter is 1.77.
Essential Utilities Inc.’s quick ratio for the period ended June 29 was 0.40, with the current ratio over the same period at 0.50. As well, the company’s long term debt to equity for the quarter ending June 29 was 1.18, while the total debt to equity was 1.22. In terms of profitability, the gross margin trailing 12 months is 74.10%. The trailing 12-month EBITDA margin is 42.93% while for the period ending June 29, Essential Utilities Inc.’s operating margin was 29.40%. The firm’s gross profit as reported stood at $661.19 million against revenue of $2.29 billion.
Earnings Surprise
For the quarterly period ending June 29 this year, Net income and sales went down compared to those figures reported in the previous quarter. Net income grew 9.84% to $91.27 million, while revenue of $191.43 million was -109.74% off the previous quarter. Analysts expected WTRG to announce $0.34 per share in earnings in its latest quarter, but it posted $0.34, representing a 0.00% surprise. EBITDA for the quarter stood at more than $240.91 million. WTRG stock balance sheet for the quarter ending June 29 shows that total liabilities totaled 10.49 billion, with total debt at $6.93 billion. Shareholders hold equity totaling $264.51 million.
Let’s look briefly at Essential Utilities Inc. (WTRG) price momentum from a technical analysis perspective. The 9-day relative strength index as at close on 18 August was 19.28% to suggest the stock is trending oversold, with historical volatility in this time period at 13.98%.
The stock’s 5-day moving average is $38.03, reflecting a -4.87% or -$1.92 change from its current price. WTRG is currently trading -12.97% above its 20-day SMA, -10.97% above its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is away from the SMA50 by -10.07% and SMA200 by-15.17%.
Stochastic %K and %D was 4.59% and 3.60% and the average true range (ATR) pointed at 0.77. The RSI (14) points at 26.32%, while the 14-day stochastic is at 7.14% with the period’s ATR at 0.78. The stock’s 9-day MACD Oscillator is pointing at -1.10 and -1.95 on the 14-day charts.
Analyst Ratings
In the most recent analyst report for Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE: WTRG), Northcoast downgraded it to a Neutral rating. They previously had a Buy rating on the stock. Analysts offering their rating for WTRG stock have a consensus rating for the stock as Overweight. Currently, 0 brokerage advisors rate WTRG as a “sell,”, while 3 advise that investors “Hold.” 0 analysts have rated the stock as underweight. 1 rates the stock as overweight while 5 have offered a “buy” rating.
What is WTRG’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts have a consensus price target ranging from a low of $44.00 and a high of $71.00, with their median price target at $51.00. Looking at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts is for Essential Utilities Inc. (WTRG) stock is $52.14.
