Quest Partners LLC Acquires New Position in Unitil Co. (NYSE:UTL)

Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Unitil Co. (NYSE:UTL) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 6,893 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $357,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of UTL. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of Unitil by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 488,461 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,678,000 after buying an additional 83,980 shares during the period. Aurora Investment Counsel purchased a new position in shares of Unitil during the 1st quarter worth $2,346,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Unitil during the 4th quarter worth about $1,028,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Unitil by 22.9% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 83,353 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,364,000 after purchasing an additional 15,518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its holdings in Unitil by 66.0% in the 2nd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 38,616 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,000,000 after buying an additional 15,355 shares during the period. 76.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Unitil Trading Up 3.6 %

Shares of UTL stock opened at $61.22 on Friday. Unitil Co. has a 1-year low of $41.43 and a 1-year high of $62.53. The firm has a market cap of $989.93 million, a PE ratio of 20.41 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a 50-day moving average of $58.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $53.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.58 and a quick ratio of 0.53.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $95.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.00 million. Unitil had a net margin of 9.53% and a return on equity of 9.74%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.25 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Unitil Co. will post 2.92 EPS for the current year.

Unitil Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $0.425 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.78%. Unitil’s payout ratio is presently 56.67%.

Unitil Profile

Unitil Corporation, a public utility holding company, engages in the distribution of electricity and natural gas. It operates through two segments, Utility Electric Operations, Utility Gas Operations. The company distributes electricity in the southeastern seacoast and state capital regions of New Hampshire, and the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts; and distributes natural gas in southeastern New Hampshire and portions of southern and central Maine, including the city of Portland and the Lewiston-Auburn area, as well as electricity and natural gas in the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts.