QualityDipStocks / Utilities · Water Supply
Essential Utilities WTRG
Outside our quality screen, so we don’t track its dips. It’s at its 52-week high.
Outside our quality screen, 7% over its Market Value. No fair value estimate for now: there isn’t enough data.
- Fair value est.
- n/a
- Market Value
- $40.64price +7%
- Off 52-wk high
- at the high
- Risk vs market
- Lowbeta −0.45
4 bullish · 5 bearish See why
Key levels
Every level vs today’s $43.52
- 52-wk lowlowest close, 1 year$36.25−16.7%
- Market Valueavg paid since Aug 5$40.64−6.6%
- PriceFri Oct 30 close$43.52you are here
- 52-wk highhighest close, 1 year$43.52at the price
Fair value estimate
No estimate for WTRG: Capital spending isn't tagged for the latest period in SEC XBRL data. We’d rather show nothing than a made-up number.
Risk vs market
How risk vs market is measured
One year of daily returns (Oct 30 to Oct 30, 252 sessions). Beta = how much WTRG moved for each 1% move in the S&P 500 (SPY); 1.0 moves with the market. Volatility is the yearly standard deviation of daily returns. Past behavior, not a forecast.
Has moved mostly independently of the market, but its own price swings are 1.7× the S&P 500’s (it moves on its own news).
- Beta vs S&P 500
- -0.45
- Volatility
- 22% vs 13% SPY
- Correlation SPY
- −0.26
- Correlation QQQ
- −0.37
Bull vs bear
Rule-based from the data on this page, strongest first. Not advice.
Top bullish points 4 of 5
ProfitabilityOperating margin widened to 37.2% in FY2025 from 33.7% in FY2023 (SEC filings).
Cash returnsDividend yield of 3.2% ($387M paid over 12 months, 70% of earnings).
GrowthSales grew 10% to $2.6B over the last 12 months vs the 12 months before (SEC filings).
Balance sheetDebt / equity of 1.2×, below the 1.6× median for the 46 Utilities companies we cover.
Top bearish points 5 of 5
Balance sheetNet debt of $8.5B, 70% of the market cap (Jun 30, 2026).
Balance sheetOperating income covers interest only 2.6× over the last 12 months.
ProfitabilityReturn on invested capital of 6%, below the 9.5% discount rate our DCF uses.
QualityDoesn’t pass our quality screen: ROE under 12% and ROIC under 10%; net debt 6.3× EBITDA (limit 3×).
ValuationTrades 7.1% above its Market Value of $40.64, the average price paid since the Aug 5 filing.
Who’s talking about it
Notable investors, executives, analysts and public figures on Essential Utilities in the last 48 hours. Headlines as published, each linked. Their words, not ours.
No notable mentions in the last 48 hours. Checked Nov 1, 9:09 PM ET.
Compare with peers
Closest in size in Utilities
All fundamentals
P/E 21.8 · ROE 8% · Sales +10%
Valuation
- P/E
- 21.8×Utilities median 21.2×
- Price / FCF
- n/anot reported in its SEC filings
- FCF yield
- n/anot reported in its SEC filings
- EV / EBITDA
- 15.3×
- Price / sales
- 4.71×
- Price / book
- 1.72×
- Market cap
- $12.1Blisted
- Enterprise value
- $20.6B
Growth
- Revenue, 12 months
- $2.6B
- Sales growth, 12 months
- +9.9%vs the 12 months before
- Sales growth, 3 yrs
- +2.6%/yrfrom FY2022
- Diluted EPS, 12 months
- $1.95
- EPS growth, last FY
- +1.4%
- Net income, 12 months
- $555M
- Net income growth
- −14%12 months vs before
Profitability
- Gross margin
- n/agross profit isn't reported (common for service and financial companies)
- Operating margin
- 35.1%
- Net margin
- 21.6%
- FCF margin
- n/anot reported in its SEC filings
- Return on equity
- 8%
- Return on invested capital
- 6%
Balance sheet
- Cash & short-term inv.
- $9M
- Total debt
- $8.5B
- Net cash
- −$8.5B
- Debt / equity
- 1.21×
- Interest coverage
- 2.6×operating income / interest
Cash flow & returns
- Free cash flow, 12 months
- n/anot reported in its SEC filings
- FCF growth, 12 months
- n/anot reported in its SEC filings
- Dividend yield
- 3.20%$387M paid
- Payout ratio
- 70%
- Buybacks, 12 months
- $3M0.0% of market cap
- Share count, 1 year
- +1.2%diluted shares vs a year ago
- Stock-based comp
- $13M
Trailing 12 months to Jun 30, 2026; balance sheet at Jun 30, 2026. From Essential Utilities’s SEC filings. Sparklines show up to six fiscal years. n/a means we don’t hold that number, with the reason. How each is computed.
Valuation details
MV $40.64
Setup & signals
No setup armed
No setup armed, so there’s no trigger or stop to track yet. Reversal signal rules only run on companies that pass our quality screen.
Momentum & 52-week range
RSI 69 · 5 days +1.0%
The business
FCF $-0.7B · Sales +3%
- Free cash flow, 12 months−$0.7B
- Free-cash-flow yield−5.5%
- Free-cash-flow margin−26%
- Gross margin56%
- Operating margin35%
- Return on invested capital5%
- Return on equity8%
- Sales growth (latest quarter vs year-ago quarter)+3%
- Net debt / EBITDA6.3×
Next report
Nov 3
- DateTue Nov 3, after the close
- Consensus EPS$0.34
- Year-ago EPS$0.33
- QuarterSep/2026
From Nasdaq’s earnings calendar. A report resets Market Value.
Information only, not investment advice. Fair value estimates and talking points are rule-based model output from public data and can be wrong; stop levels are reference points, not orders. How every number is computed.
WTRG is outside our quality screen
One text when a published rule fires on one of the 333 quality companies we track: the ticker, the price, the stop and a link to the numbers. Nothing else.