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WTRG (Essential Utilities) Piotroski F-Score : 5 (As of Mar. 20, 2025)


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What is Essential Utilities Piotroski F-Score?

The zones of discrimination were as such:

Good or high score = 7, 8, 9
Bad or low score = 0, 1, 2, 3

Essential Utilities has an F-score of 5 indicating the company's financial situation is typical for a stable company.

The historical rank and industry rank for Essential Utilities's Piotroski F-Score or its related term are showing as below:

WTRG' s Piotroski F-Score Range Over the Past 10 Years
Min: 4   Med: 5   Max: 7
Current: 5

During the past 13 years, the highest Piotroski F-Score of Essential Utilities was 7. The lowest was 4. And the median was 5.


Essential Utilities Piotroski F-Score Historical Data

The historical data trend for Essential Utilities's Piotroski F-Score can be seen below:

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

* Premium members only.

Essential Utilities Piotroski F-Score Chart

Essential Utilities Annual Data
Trend Dec15 Dec16 Dec17 Dec18 Dec19 Dec20 Dec21 Dec22 Dec23 Dec24
Piotroski F-Score
Get a 7-Day Free Trial Premium Member Only Premium Member Only 4.00 7.00 5.00 5.00 5.00

Essential Utilities Quarterly Data
Mar20 Jun20 Sep20 Dec20 Mar21 Jun21 Sep21 Dec21 Mar22 Jun22 Sep22 Dec22 Mar23 Jun23 Sep23 Dec23 Mar24 Jun24 Sep24 Dec24
Piotroski F-Score Get a 7-Day Free Trial Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only 5.00 6.00 7.00 6.00 5.00

Competitive Comparison of Essential Utilities's Piotroski F-Score

For the Utilities - Regulated Water subindustry, Essential Utilities's Piotroski F-Score, along with its competitors' market caps and Piotroski F-Score data, can be viewed below:

* Competitive companies are chosen from companies within the same industry, with headquarter located in same country, with closest market capitalization; x-axis shows the market cap, and y-axis shows the term value; the bigger the dot, the larger the market cap. Note that "N/A" values will not show up in the chart.


Essential Utilities's Piotroski F-Score Distribution in the Utilities - Regulated Industry

For the Utilities - Regulated industry and Utilities sector, Essential Utilities's Piotroski F-Score distribution charts can be found below:

* The bar in red indicates where Essential Utilities's Piotroski F-Score falls into.


How is the Piotroski F-Score calculated?

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

This Year (Dec24) TTM:Last Year (Dec23) TTM:
Net Income was 265.772 + 75.385 + 69.402 + 184.755 = $595 Mil.
Cash Flow from Operations was 240.713 + 185.713 + 196.084 + 147.833 = $770 Mil.
Revenue was 612.069 + 434.406 + 435.255 + 604.383 = $2,086 Mil.
Gross Profit was 345.494 + 258.166 + 271.792 + 346.402 = $1,222 Mil.
Average Total Assets from the begining of this year (Dec23)
to the end of this year (Dec24) was
(16841.459 + 17054.344 + 17252.116 + 17564.626 + 18026.554) / 5 = $17347.8198 Mil.
Total Assets at the begining of this year (Dec23) was $16,841 Mil.
Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation was $7,396 Mil.
Total Current Assets was $486 Mil.
Total Current Liabilities was $975 Mil.
Net Income was 191.434 + 91.268 + 80.076 + 135.448 = $498 Mil.

Revenue was 726.45 + 436.7 + 411.255 + 479.419 = $2,054 Mil.
Gross Profit was 332.141 + 261.259 + 247.647 + 284.953 = $1,126 Mil.
Average Total Assets from the begining of last year (Dec22)
to the end of last year (Dec23) was
(15719.107 + 15818.266 + 16101.935 + 16432.793 + 16841.459) / 5 = $16182.712 Mil.
Total Assets at the begining of last year (Dec22) was $15,719 Mil.
Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation was $6,861 Mil.
Total Current Assets was $492 Mil.
Total Current Liabilities was $798 Mil.

*Note: If the latest quarterly/semi-annual/annual total assets data is 0, then we will use previous quarterly/semi-annual/annual data for all the items in the balance sheet.

Profitability

Question 1. Return on Assets (ROA)

Net income before extraordinary items for the year divided by Total Assets at the beginning of the year.

Score 1 if positive, 0 if negative.

Essential Utilities's current Net Income (TTM) was 595. ==> Positive ==> Score 1.

Question 2. Cash Flow Return on Assets (CFROA)

Net cash flow from operating activities (operating cash flow) divided by Total Assets at the beginning of the year.

Score 1 if positive, 0 if negative.

Essential Utilities's current Cash Flow from Operations (TTM) was 770. ==> Positive ==> Score 1.

Question 3. Change in Return on Assets

Compare this year's return on assets (1) to last year's return on assets.

Score 1 if it's higher, 0 if it's lower.

ROA (This Year)=Net Income/Total Assets (Dec23)
=595.314/16841.459
=0.03534813

ROA (Last Year)=Net Income/Total Assets (Dec22)
=498.226/15719.107
=0.03169557

Essential Utilities's return on assets of this year was 0.03534813. Essential Utilities's return on assets of last year was 0.03169557. ==> This year is higher. ==> Score 1.

Question 4. Quality of Earnings (Accrual)

Compare Cash flow return on assets (2) to return on assets (1)

Score 1 if CFROA > ROA, 0 if CFROA <= ROA.

Essential Utilities's current Net Income (TTM) was 595. Essential Utilities's current Cash Flow from Operations (TTM) was 770. ==> 770 > 595 ==> CFROA > ROA ==> Score 1.

Funding

Question 5. Change in Gearing or Leverage

Compare this year's gearing (long-term debt divided by average total assets) to last year's gearing.

Score 0 if this year's gearing is higher, 1 otherwise.

Gearing (This Year: Dec24)=Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation/Average Total Assets from Dec23 to Dec24
=7395.828/17347.8198
=0.42632608

Gearing (Last Year: Dec23)=Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation/Average Total Assets from Dec22 to Dec23
=6860.51/16182.712
=0.42394068

Essential Utilities's gearing of this year was 0.42632608. Essential Utilities's gearing of last year was 0.42394068. ==> Last year is lower than this year ==> Score 0.

Question 6. Change in Working Capital (Liquidity)

Compare this year's current ratio (current assets divided by current liabilities) to last year's current ratio.

Score 1 if this year's current ratio is higher, 0 if it's lower

Current Ratio (This Year: Dec24)=Total Current Assets/Total Current Liabilities
=485.911/974.668
=0.49854002

Current Ratio (Last Year: Dec23)=Total Current Assets/Total Current Liabilities
=491.979/797.927
=0.61657144

Essential Utilities's current ratio of this year was 0.49854002. Essential Utilities's current ratio of last year was 0.61657144. ==> Last year's current ratio is higher ==> Score 0.

Question 7. Change in Shares in Issue

Compare the number of shares in issue this year, to the number in issue last year.

Score 0 if there is larger number of shares in issue this year, 1 otherwise.

Essential Utilities's number of shares in issue this year was 275.303. Essential Utilities's number of shares in issue last year was 273.572. ==> There is larger number of shares in issue this year. ==> Score 0.

Efficiency

Question 8. Change in Gross Margin

Compare this year's gross margin (Gross Profit divided by sales) to last year's.

Score 1 if this year's gross margin is higher, 0 if it's lower.

Gross Margin (This Year: TTM)=Gross Profit/Revenue
=1221.854/2086.113
=0.58570844

Gross Margin (Last Year: TTM)=Gross Profit/Revenue
=1126/2053.824
=0.54824561

Essential Utilities's gross margin of this year was 0.58570844. Essential Utilities's gross margin of last year was 0.54824561. ==> This year's gross margin is higher. ==> Score 1.

Question 9. Change in asset turnover

Compare this year's asset turnover (total sales for the year divided by total assets at the beginning of the year) to last year's asset turnover ratio.

Score 1 if this year's asset turnover ratio is higher, 0 if it's lower

Asset Turnover (This Year)=Revenue/Total Assets at the Beginning of This Year (Dec23)
=2086.113/16841.459
=0.12386771

Asset Turnover (Last Year)=Revenue/Total Assets at the Beginning of Last Year (Dec22)
=2053.824/15719.107
=0.1306578

Essential Utilities's asset turnover of this year was 0.12386771. Essential Utilities's asset turnover of last year was 0.1306578. ==> Last year's asset turnover is higher ==> Score 0.

Evaluation

Piotroski F-Score= Que. 1+ Que. 2+ Que. 3+Que. 4+Que. 5+Que. 6+Que. 7+Que. 8+Que. 9
=1+1+1+1+0+0+0+1+0
=5

Good or high score = 7, 8, 9
Bad or low score = 0, 1, 2, 3

Essential Utilities has an F-score of 5 indicating the company's financial situation is typical for a stable company.

Essential Utilities  (NYSE:WTRG) Piotroski F-Score Explanation

The developer of the system is Joseph D. Piotroski is relatively unknown accounting professor who shuns publicity and rarely gives interviews.

He graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.S. in accounting in 1989, received an M.B.A. from Indiana University in 1994. Five years later, in 1999, after earning a Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Michigan, he became an associate professor of accounting at the University of Chicago.

In 2000, he wrote a research paper called "Value Investing: The Use of Historical Financial Statement Information to Separate Winners from Losers" (pdf).

He wanted to see if he can develop a system (using a simple nine-point scoring system) that can increase the returns of a strategy of investing in low price to book (referred to in the paper as high book to market) value companies.

What he found was something that exceeded his most optimistic expectations.

Buying only those companies that scored highest (8 or 9) on his nine-point scale, or F-Score as he called it, over the 20 year period from 1976 to 1996 led to an average out-performance over the market of 13.4%.

Even more impressive were the results of a strategy of investing in the highest F-Score companies (8 or 9) and shorting companies with the lowest F-Score (0 or 1).

Over the same period from 1976 to 1996 (20 years) this strategy led to an average yearly return of 23%, substantially outperforming the average S&P 500 index return of 15.83% over the same period.


Essential Utilities Piotroski F-Score Related Terms

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Essential Utilities Business Description

Traded in Other Exchanges
Address
762 West Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA, USA, 19010-3489
Essential Utilities is a Pennsylvania-based holding company for us water, wastewater, and natural gas distribution utilities. The company's water business serves 3 million people in eight states. Its largest service territory is in Pennsylvania, primarily suburban Philadelphia. Its Peoples subsidiary serves more than 740,000 gas distribution customers in Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Essential also owns nonregulated market-based water and energy services businesses.
Executives
Robert A Rubin officer: Chief Accounting Officer 762 W LANCASTER AVE, BRYN MAWR PA 19010
Elizabeth B Amato director UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION, 10 FARM SPRINGS ROAD, FARMINGTON CT 06032
Roderick K West director 1600 PERDIDO STREET, BLDG 505, NEW ORLEANS LA 70112
Arnold Colleen officer: President 762 W. LANCASTER AVENUE, BRYN MAWR PA 19010
Chris Franklin officer: Aqua America Southern Oper 762 W.LANCASTER AVE, BRYN MAWR PA 19010
Michael Huwar officer: President 762 W. LANCASTER AVENUE, BRYN MAWR PA 19010
Ellen T Ruff director 762, W LANCASTER AVE, BRYN MAWR PA 19010
Wilbert Bryan Lewis director 762 W. LANCASTER AVENUE, BRYN MAWR PA 19010
Daniel Schuller officer: Executive Vice President 40 SACHEM ROAD, GREENWICH CT 06830
David Alan Ciesinski director H. J. HEINZ COMPANY, P.O. BOX 57, PITTSBURGH PA 15230
Edwina Kelly director 510 MADISON AVENUE, 15FL, NEW YORK NY 10022
Richard Scott Fox officer: Chief Operating Officer 14812 BALLANTYNE COUNTRY CLUB DRIVE, CHARLOTTE NC 28277
Matthew Rhodes officer: EVP, Strategy & Corp Dev 762 LANCASTER AVE, BRYN MAWR PA 19010
Wendy Franks director ONE QUEEN STREET EAST, SUITE 2500, TORONTO A6 M5C 2W5
Hilferty Daniel J Iii director C/O FS INVESTMENT CORPORATION III, CIRA CENTRE, 2929 ARCH STREET, SUITE 675, PHILADELPHIA PA 19104