Essential Utilities, Inc.

NYSE:WTRG Stock Report

Market Cap: US$10.0b

Essential Utilities Valuation

Is WTRG undervalued compared to its fair value, analyst forecasts and its price relative to the market?

Valuation Score

4/6

Valuation Score 4/6

  • Below Fair Value

  • Significantly Below Fair Value

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Peers

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Industry

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Fair Ratio

  • Analyst Forecast

Share Price vs Fair Value

What is the Fair Price of WTRG when looking at its future cash flows? For this estimate we use a Discounted Cash Flow model.

Below Fair Value: WTRG ($36.36) is trading below our estimate of fair value ($43.35)

Significantly Below Fair Value: WTRG is trading below fair value, but not by a significant amount.

Key Valuation Metric

Which metric is best to use when looking at relative valuation for WTRG?

Key metric: As WTRG is profitable we use its Price-To-Earnings Ratio for relative valuation analysis.

The above table shows the Price to Earnings ratio for WTRG. This is calculated by dividing WTRG's market cap by their current earnings.
What is WTRG's PE Ratio?
PE Ratio18.3x
EarningsUS$546.01m
Market CapUS$9.98b

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Peers

How does WTRG's PE Ratio compare to its peers?

The above table shows the PE ratio for WTRG vs its peers. Here we also display the market cap and forecasted growth for additional consideration.
CompanyForward PEEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
Peer Average21.1x
AWK American Water Works Company
25x7.9%US$24.5b
AWR American States Water
27.1x8.6%US$3.0b
CWT California Water Service Group
13.6x0.1%US$2.7b
SJW SJW Group
18.5x7.6%US$1.7b
WTRG Essential Utilities
18.3x7.0%US$10.0b

Price-To-Earnings vs Peers: WTRG is good value based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (18.3x) compared to the peer average (21.1x).

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Industry

How does WTRG's PE Ratio compare vs other companies in the Global Water Utilities Industry?

3 CompaniesPrice / EarningsEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
WTRG 18.3xIndustry Avg. 16.8xNo. of Companies11PE01020304050+
3 CompaniesEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
No more companies

Price-To-Earnings vs Industry: WTRG is expensive based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (18.3x) compared to the Global Water Utilities industry average (16.8x).

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Fair Ratio

What is WTRG's PE Ratio compared to its Fair PE Ratio? This is the expected PE Ratio taking into account the company's forecast earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors.

WTRG PE Ratio vs Fair Ratio.
Fair Ratio
Current PE Ratio18.3x
Fair PE Ratio20.1x

Price-To-Earnings vs Fair Ratio: WTRG is good value based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (18.3x) compared to the estimated Fair Price-To-Earnings Ratio (20.1x).

Analyst Price Targets

What is the analyst 12-month forecast and do we have any statistical confidence in the consensus price target?

The above table shows the analyst WTRG forecast and predictions for the stock price in 12 month’s time.
DateShare PriceAverage 1Y Price TargetDispersionHighLow1Y Actual priceAnalysts
CurrentUS$36.36
US$45.70
+25.7%
10.9%US$60.00US$41.00n/a10
Dec ’25US$40.03
US$45.80
+14.4%
10.9%US$60.00US$41.00n/a10
Nov ’25US$38.24
US$46.30
+21.1%
10.0%US$60.00US$43.00n/a10
Oct ’25US$38.33
US$46.56
+21.5%
10.4%US$60.00US$43.00n/a9
Sep ’25US$38.99
US$46.75
+19.9%
10.9%US$60.00US$43.00n/a8
Aug ’25US$41.10
US$44.88
+9.2%
12.6%US$60.00US$39.96n/a9
Jul ’25US$37.09
US$44.00
+18.6%
13.0%US$60.00US$39.96n/a9
Jun ’25US$37.73
US$44.00
+16.6%
13.0%US$60.00US$39.96n/a9
May ’25US$37.21
US$43.77
+17.6%
13.4%US$60.00US$39.96n/a9
Apr ’25US$36.77
US$43.80
+19.1%
12.7%US$60.00US$39.96n/a10
Mar ’25US$34.86
US$44.70
+28.2%
13.2%US$60.00US$39.96n/a10
Feb ’25US$36.61
US$46.80
+27.8%
11.9%US$61.00US$42.00n/a10
Jan ’25US$37.35
US$46.80
+25.3%
11.9%US$61.00US$42.00n/a10
Dec ’24US$36.03
US$46.60
+29.3%
12.4%US$61.00US$40.00US$40.0310
Nov ’24US$33.65
US$46.50
+38.2%
12.7%US$61.00US$39.00US$38.2410
Oct ’24US$34.33
US$48.67
+41.8%
12.1%US$61.00US$42.00US$38.339
Sep ’24US$36.69
US$49.63
+35.3%
11.4%US$61.00US$42.00US$38.998
Aug ’24US$41.72
US$52.50
+25.8%
15.8%US$71.00US$42.00US$41.108
Jul ’24US$39.91
US$52.50
+31.5%
15.8%US$71.00US$42.00US$37.098
Jun ’24US$39.96
US$52.63
+31.7%
15.7%US$71.00US$42.00US$37.738
May ’24US$42.71
US$53.33
+24.9%
14.4%US$71.00US$42.00US$37.219
Apr ’24US$43.65
US$53.33
+22.2%
14.4%US$71.00US$42.00US$36.779
Mar ’24US$42.57
US$53.78
+26.3%
14.2%US$71.00US$42.00US$34.869
Feb ’24US$48.10
US$52.67
+9.5%
14.5%US$71.00US$42.00US$36.619
Jan ’24US$47.73
US$51.67
+8.2%
15.6%US$71.00US$42.00US$37.359
Dec ’23US$48.36
US$51.60
+6.7%
15.0%US$71.00US$42.00US$36.0310

Analyst Forecast: Target price is more than 20% higher than the current share price and analysts are within a statistically confident range of agreement.

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Company Analysis and Financial Data Status

DataLast Updated (UTC time)
Company Analysis2024/12/22 02:08
End of Day Share Price 2024/12/20 00:00
Earnings2024/09/30
Annual Earnings2023/12/31

Data Sources

The data used in our company analysis is from S&P Global Market Intelligence LLC. The following data is used in our analysis model to generate this report. Data is normalised which can introduce a delay from the source being available.

PackageDataTimeframeExample US Source *
Company Financials10 years
  • Income statement
  • Cash flow statement
  • Balance sheet
Analyst Consensus Estimates+3 years
  • Forecast financials
  • Analyst price targets
Market Prices30 years
  • Stock prices
  • Dividends, Splits and Actions
Ownership10 years
  • Top shareholders
  • Insider trading
Management10 years
  • Leadership team
  • Board of directors
Key Developments10 years
  • Company announcements

* example for US securities, for non-US equivalent regulatory forms and sources are used.

Unless specified all financial data is based on a yearly period but updated quarterly. This is known as Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) or Last Twelve Month (LTM) Data. Learn more here.

Analysis Model and Snowflake

Details of the analysis model used to generate this report is available on our Github page, we also have guides on how to use our reports and tutorials on Youtube.

Learn about the world class team who designed and built the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Industry and Sector Metrics

Our industry and section metrics are calculated every 6 hours by Simply Wall St, details of our process are available on .

Analyst Sources

Essential Utilities, Inc. is covered by 26 analysts. 7 of those analysts submitted the estimates of revenue or earnings used as inputs to our report. Analysts submissions are updated throughout the day.

AnalystInstitution
Jacob KilsteinArgus Research Company
Davis SunderlandBaird
Benjamin KalloBaird