Unitil (NYSE:UTL) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.02 EPS

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) announced its earnings results on Monday. The utilities provider reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by $0.02, FiscalAI reports. The company had revenue of $112.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $113.11 million. Unitil had a return on equity of 9.53% and a net margin of 9.49%.

Unitil Price Performance

UTL stock traded up $0.95 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $56.42. 110,274 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 125,791. The company has a current ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.42. Unitil has a one year low of $46.91 and a one year high of $57.26. The company has a market cap of $1.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.80 and a beta of 0.27.

Unitil Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be paid a $0.4750 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 13th. Unitil’s dividend payout ratio is currently 59.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Huntington began coverage on shares of Unitil in a research note on Monday, September 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $63.00 target price on the stock. Weiss Ratings lowered Unitil from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $58.67.

Unitil Company Profile

Unitil Corporation is a regulated public utility holding company that delivers electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Its operations focus primarily on the distribution of energy through local utility networks rather than the production of electricity or natural gas.

Through its operating subsidiaries, Unitil provides electric distribution service in portions of New Hampshire and Massachusetts and natural gas distribution service in parts of southern New Hampshire and central Massachusetts.