How to buy Essential Utilities stock (WTRG)

Essential Utilities is an utilities - regulated water business based in the US. Essential Utilities shares (WTRG) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Its last market close was $36.24 – a decrease of 6.33% over the previous week. Essential Utilities employs 3,258 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around $2 billion.

Our top picks for where to buy Essential Utilities stock

Buy Essential Utilities stock from these online trading platforms

Compare special offers, low fees and a wide range of investment options among top trading platforms.

Paid non-client promotion. Finder does not invest money with providers on this page. If a brand is a referral partner, we're paid when you click or tap through to, open an account with or provide your contact information to the provider. Partnerships are not a recommendation for you to invest with any one company. Learn more about how we make money.

Finder is not an advisor or brokerage service. Information on this page is for educational purposes only and not a recommendation to invest with any one company, trade specific stocks or fund specific investments. All editorial opinions are our own.

Essential Utilities stock price (NYSE: WTRG)

Use our graph to track the performance of WTRG stocks over time.

Essential Utilities shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2024-12-19.

Latest market close	$36.24
52-week range	$32.76 - $41.09
50-day moving average more info button	$39.29
200-day moving average more info button	$38.28
Wall St. target price	$45.80
PE ratio more info button	18.2111
Dividend yield more info button	$1.247 (3.59%)
Earnings per share (TTM) more info button	$1.99

Is it a good time to buy Essential Utilities stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Essential Utilities price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $36.24 from 2024-12-18

1 week (2024-12-13)	-6.33%
1 month (2024-11-20)	-6.93%
3 months (2024-09-20)	-4.63%
6 months (2024-06-20)	-2.08%

1 year (2023-12-20)	-1.17%
2 years (2022-12-20)	-17.37%
3 years (2021-12-20)	47.1201
5 years (2019-12-20)	40.8748

Is Essential Utilities stock undervalued or overvalued?

Valuing Essential Utilities stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Essential Utilities's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Essential Utilities's P/E ratio

Essential Utilities's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 18x. In other words, Essential Utilities shares trade at around 18x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

Essential Utilities's PEG ratio

Essential Utilities's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 2.483. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Essential Utilities's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Essential Utilities's EBITDA

Essential Utilities's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is $1.1 billion.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Essential Utilities's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Essential Utilities financials

Revenue TTM	$2 billion
Operating margin TTM	35.68%
Gross profit TTM	$1.1 billion
Return on assets TTM	2.6%
Return on equity TTM	9.02%
Profit margin	27.84%
Book value	$22.51
Market Capitalization more info button	$10 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Essential Utilities share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 63.3% of net profits

Recently Essential Utilities has paid out, on average, around 100% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 0% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Essential Utilities shareholders could enjoy a 0% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Essential Utilities's case, that would currently equate to about $1.247 per share.

Essential Utilities's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.

Essential Utilities's most recent dividend payout was on 2 March 2025. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 9 February 2025 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Essential Utilities's shares ever split?

Essential Utilities's shares were split on a 5:4 basis on 2 September 2013 . So if you had owned 4 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 5 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Essential Utilities shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 20% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Essential Utilities shares which in turn could have impacted Essential Utilities's share price.

Essential Utilities share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Essential Utilities's shares have ranged in value from as little as $32.7574 up to $41.0947. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Essential Utilities's is 0.836. This would suggest that Essential Utilities's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).

Essential Utilities overview

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. In addition, the company provides utility service line protection solutions and repair services to households. It serves approximately 5. 5 million residential water, commercial water, fire protection, industrial water, wastewater, and other water and utility customers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, Illinois, North Carolina, New Jersey, Indiana, Virginia, and Kentucky under the Aqua and Peoples brands.

Frequently asked questions

null
What percentage of Essential Utilities is owned by insiders or institutions?
Currently 0.192% of Essential Utilities shares are held by insiders and 81.656% by institutions. How many people work for Essential Utilities?
Latest data suggests 3,258 work at Essential Utilities. When does the fiscal year end for Essential Utilities?
Essential Utilities's fiscal year ends in December. Where is Essential Utilities based?
Essential Utilities's address is: 762 West Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA, United States, 19010-3489 What is Essential Utilities's ISIN number?
Essential Utilities's international securities identification number is: US29670G1022 What is Essential Utilities's CUSIP number?
Essential Utilities's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 718009608