Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE:WTRG) just released its quarterly report and things are looking bullish. Essential Utilities delivered a significant beat to revenue and earnings per share (EPS) expectations, hitting US$784m-14% above indicated-andUS$1.03-25% above forecasts- respectively Earnings are an important time for investors, as they can track a company’s performance, look at what the analysts are forecasting for next year, and see if there’s been a change in sentiment towards the company. So we gathered the latest post-earnings forecasts to see what estimates suggest is in store for next year.
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Taking into account the latest results, Essential Utilities’ six analysts currently expect revenues in 2025 to be US$2.29b, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are forecast to dip 4.0% to US$2.10 in the same period. Before this earnings report, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$2.35b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$2.11 in 2025. The consensus seems maybe a little more pessimistic, trimming their revenue forecasts after the latest results even though there was no change to its EPS estimates.
Check out our latest analysis for Essential Utilities
The consensus has reconfirmed its price target of US$45.56, showing that the analysts don’t expect weaker revenue expectations next year to have a material impact on Essential Utilities’ market value. That’s not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. There are some variant perceptions on Essential Utilities, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$56.00 and the most bearish at US$42.00 per share. As you can see, analysts are not all in agreement on the stock’s future, but the range of estimates is still reasonably narrow, which could suggest that the outcome is not totally unpredictable.
Taking a look at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can understand these forecasts is to see how they compare to both past performance and industry growth estimates. We would highlight that Essential Utilities’ revenue growth is expected to slow, with the forecast 2.0% annualised growth rate until the end of 2025 being well below the historical 10% p.a. growth over the last five years. By way of comparison, the other companies in this industry with analyst coverage are forecast to grow their revenue at 6.3% per year. So it’s pretty clear that, while revenue growth is expected to slow down, the wider industry is also expected to grow faster than Essential Utilities.