Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Reduces Stock Position in Unitil Co. (NYSE:UTL)

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp cut its holdings in Unitil Co. (NYSE:UTL) by 9.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,812 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,277 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp owned about 0.08% of Unitil worth $664,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in UTL. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in Unitil by 20.8% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 488,461 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,678,000 after purchasing an additional 83,980 shares during the period. Aurora Investment Counsel purchased a new stake in Unitil during the 1st quarter valued at $2,346,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its position in Unitil by 66.0% in the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 38,616 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,000,000 after buying an additional 15,355 shares during the last quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Unitil by 159.3% during the fourth quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 17,065 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $897,000 after buying an additional 10,485 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Unitil by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 213,062 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,201,000 after acquiring an additional 9,489 shares during the last quarter. 76.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Unitil Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of UTL opened at $60.38 on Friday. Unitil Co. has a twelve month low of $41.43 and a twelve month high of $63.52. The company has a current ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $54.24. The company has a market cap of $976.22 million, a P/E ratio of 20.13 and a beta of 0.60.

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. Unitil had a net margin of 9.53% and a return on equity of 9.74%. The company had revenue of $95.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.25 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Unitil Co. will post 2.92 EPS for the current year.

Unitil Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $0.425 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.82%. Unitil’s payout ratio is 56.67%.

About Unitil

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.