Unitil Corporation (NYSE:UTL) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Unitil Corporation (NYSE:UTL) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $56.50.

Separately, Weiss Ratings downgraded Unitil from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in Unitil by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 10,519 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $510,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Unitil by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 9,698 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $470,000 after purchasing an additional 232 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Unitil by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 8,812 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $427,000 after buying an additional 312 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. increased its position in Unitil by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 69,773 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,380,000 after buying an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in Unitil by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 5,220 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $272,000 after buying an additional 344 shares in the last quarter. 76.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Unitil Price Performance

Shares of NYSE UTL opened at $53.15 on Friday. Unitil has a twelve month low of $45.17 and a twelve month high of $57.26. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.68. The company has a market capitalization of $969.49 million, a PE ratio of 16.77 and a beta of 0.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $113.19 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $113.19 million. Unitil had a net margin of 9.49% and a return on equity of 9.53%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Unitil will post 3.31 EPS for the current year.

Unitil Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th were paid a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 17th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. Unitil’s payout ratio is 59.94%.

Unitil Company Profile

Unitil Corporation (NYSE: UTL) is a regulated public utility holding company that provides electric and natural gas distribution services to customers in New England. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company delivers energy to residential, commercial and industrial customers and maintains the local utility infrastructure needed to support those services.

Unitil Energy Systems provides electric distribution service in southeastern New Hampshire. Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light Company serves customers in north-central Massachusetts with electric and natural gas distribution, while Northern Utilities provides natural gas distribution in parts of New Hampshire and southern Maine.

Headquartered in Hampton, New Hampshire, Unitil traces its history to the consolidation of smaller New England utilities and has operated as a publicly traded utility company since 1984.