Reasons to Add Essential Utilities Stock to Your Portfolio Right Now

Essential Utilities WTRG is expected to continue benefiting from acquired assets, organic growth initiatives and capital expenditures. Given its growth opportunities, WTRG makes for a solid investment option in the utility sector.

Let’s focus on the factors that make this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company a strong investment pick at the moment.

WTRG’s Growth Projections & Surprise History

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings per share (EPS) has increased 0.5% in the past 30 days to $2.11. 

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 sales is pinned at $2.35 billion, indicating a year-over-year increase of 12.7%.

Essential Utilities’ long-term (three to five years) earnings growth rate is 5.18%. The company delivered a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 17.5%.

Debt Position of WTRG

Currently, Essential Utilities’ total debt to capital is 53.63%, better than the sector’s average of 59.89%. 

The time-to-interest earned ratio at the end of the second quarter of 2025 was 2.9. The ratio, being greater than one, reflects the company’s ability to meet future interest obligations without difficulties.

WTRG’s Return on Equity

ROE indicates how efficiently a company has been utilizing the funds to generate higher returns. Currently, Essential Utilities’ ROE is 10.1%, higher than the sector’s average of 9.78%. This indicates that the company has been utilizing the funds more constructively than its peers in the utility sector.

Dividend History of WTRG

Essential Utilities continues to increase the value of shareholders through annual increases in dividends. The company has been paying dividends for the past 80 years and has increased the dividend 35 times in the past 34 years. Currently, its quarterly dividend is 34.26 cents per share, resulting in an annualized dividend of $1.37. Its current dividend yield is 3.5%, better than the Zacks S&P 500 composite's average of 1.16%.

WTRG’s Rising Customer Base  

Essential Utilities is actively exploring opportunities to expand utility operations through the acquisition of municipal assets. Since 2015, Essential Utilities has expanded utility operations by completing many water and wastewater acquisitions, adding more than 135,000 customers. Essential Utilities’ pending four acquisitions, when completed, will add more than 200,000 customers to its existing base. This is expected to create more demand and contribute positively to its top line.

WTRG’s Share Price Performance

In the past month, the stock has returned 3.2% compared with the industry’s growth of 2.2%.

Other Stocks to Consider

A few other top-ranked stocks from the same industry are Consolidated Water CWCO, California Water Service Group CWT and Global Water Resources GWRS, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CWCO’s  2025 EPS implies a decline of 6.3% from the bottom line recorded in 2024. It delivered an average earnings surprise of 40.1% in the last four quarters. 

CWT’s long-term earnings growth rate is 8.78%. The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 51.6% for the past four quarters. 

GWRS’ long-term earnings growth rate is 15%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 EPS indicates a year-over-year decline of 15.4%.

 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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