Somewhat Positive Media Coverage Somewhat Unlikely to Impact UNITIL Corporation (UTL) Stock Price

Media coverage about UNITIL Corporation (NYSE:UTL) has been trending somewhat positive recently, Accern Sentiment Analysis reports. The research group identifies negative and positive news coverage by analyzing more than twenty million blog and news sources. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. UNITIL Corporation earned a daily sentiment score of 0.16 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave press coverage about the utilities provider an impact score of 45.5185968127871 out of 100, indicating that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the company’s share price in the near term.

Shares of UNITIL Corporation (UTL) opened at 49.61 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $49.92 and a 200 day moving average of $47.30. UNITIL Corporation has a 52 week low of $37.31 and a 52 week high of $52.20. The stock has a market cap of $700.25 million, a PE ratio of 23.84 and a beta of 0.21.

UNITIL Corporation (NYSE:UTL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $80.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $78.10 million. UNITIL Corporation had a net margin of 7.52% and a return on equity of 9.88%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.18 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that UNITIL Corporation will post $2.00 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 29th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be paid a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 11th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.90%. UNITIL Corporation’s payout ratio is 68.90%.

Several analysts have commented on UTL shares. Zacks Investment Research cut shares of UNITIL Corporation from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 1st. BidaskClub cut shares of UNITIL Corporation from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 31st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $47.00 price target on shares of UNITIL Corporation in a research note on Tuesday, August 15th.

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UNITIL Corporation Company Profile

Unitil Corporation is a public utility holding company. The Company’s principal business is the local distribution of electricity in the southeastern seacoast and state capital regions of New Hampshire and the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts and the local distribution of natural gas in southeastern New Hampshire, portions of southern Maine to the Lewiston-Auburn area and in the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts.