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Essential Utilities (Essential Utilities) Financial Strength : 3 (As of Dec. 2023)


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What is Essential Utilities Financial Strength?

Essential Utilities has the Financial Strength Rank of 3. It displays poor financial strength and is likely in financial distress. Usually this is caused by too much debt for the company.

Warning Sign:

Essential Utilities Inc displays poor financial strength. Usually, this is caused by too much debt for the company.

GuruFocus Financial Strength Rank measures how strong a company's financial situation is. It is based on these factors:

1. The debt burden that the company has as measured by its Interest Coverage (current year). The higher, the better.
2. Debt to revenue ratio. The lower, the better.
3. Altman Z-Score.

Essential Utilities's Interest Coverage for the quarter that ended in Dec. 2023 was 2.39. Essential Utilities's debt to revenue ratio for the quarter that ended in Dec. 2023 was 3.70. As of today, Essential Utilities's Altman Z-Score is 0.93.


Competitive Comparison of Essential Utilities's Financial Strength

For the Utilities - Regulated Water subindustry, Essential Utilities's Financial Strength, along with its competitors' market caps and Financial Strength 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 Financial Strength Distribution in the Utilities - Regulated Industry

For the Utilities - Regulated industry and Utilities sector, Essential Utilities's Financial Strength distribution charts can be found below:

* The bar in red indicates where Essential Utilities's Financial Strength falls into.



Essential Utilities Financial Strength Calculation

GuruFocus Financial Strength Rank measures how strong a company's financial situation is. It is based on these factors

A company ranks high with financial strength is likely to withstand any business slowdowns and recessions.

1. The debt burden that the company has as measured by its Interest Coverage (current year). The higher, the better.

Note: If both Interest Expense and Interest Income are empty, while Net Interest Income is negative, then use Net Interest Income as Interest Expense.

Interest Coverage is a ratio that determines how easily a company can pay interest expenses on outstanding debt. It is calculated by dividing a company's Operating Income (EBIT) by its Interest Expense:

Essential Utilities's Interest Expense for the months ended in Dec. 2023 was $-73 Mil. Its Operating Income for the months ended in Dec. 2023 was $174 Mil. And its Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation for the quarter that ended in Dec. 2023 was $6,861 Mil.

Essential Utilities's Interest Coverage for the quarter that ended in Dec. 2023 is

Interest Coverage=-1*Operating Income (Q: Dec. 2023 )/Interest Expense (Q: Dec. 2023 )
=-1*173.973/-72.922
=2.39

The higher the ratio, the stronger the company's financial strength is.

Warning Sign:

Ben Graham prefers companies' interest coverage to be at least 5. Essential Utilities Inc interest coverage is 2.44, which is low.

2. Debt to revenue ratio. The lower, the better.

Essential Utilities's Debt to Revenue Ratio for the quarter that ended in Dec. 2023 is

Debt to Revenue Ratio=Total Debt (Q: Dec. 2023 ) / Revenue
=(Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation + Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation) / Revenue
=(227.538 + 6860.51) / 1917.676
=3.70

3. Altman Z-Score.

Z-Score model is an accurate forecaster of failure up to two years prior to distress. It can be considered the assessment of the distress of industrial corporations.

The zones of discrimination were as such:

When Z-Score is less than 1.81, it is in Distress Zones.
When Z-Score is greater than 2.99, it is in Safe Zones.
When Z-Score is between 1.81 and 2.99, it is in Grey Zones.

Essential Utilities has a Z-score of 0.93, indicating it is in Distress Zones. This implies bankrupcy possibility in the next two years.

Warning Sign:

Altman Z-score of 0.93 is in distress zone. This implies bankruptcy possibility in the next two years.

* 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.


Essential Utilities  (NYSE:WTRG) Financial Strength Explanation

The maximum rank is 10. Companies with rank 7 or higher will be unlikely to fall into distressed situations. Companies with rank of 3 or less are likely in financial distress.

Essential Utilities has the Financial Strength Rank of 3. It displays poor financial strength and is likely in financial distress. Usually this is caused by too much debt for the company.


Essential Utilities Financial Strength Related Terms

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Essential Utilities (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 U.S. water, wastewater, and natural gas distribution utilities. The company's water business serves 3 million people in eight states. Nearly three fourths of its water earnings come from Pennsylvania, primarily suburban Philadelphia. Its Peoples subsidiary serves more than 700,000 gas distribution customers in Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Essential exited its noncore competitive water and energy services businesses.
Executives
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
Robert A Rubin officer: Chief Accounting Officer 762 W LANCASTER AVE, 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
Christopher Paul Luning officer: Sr. VP, General Counsel & Sec 762 W. LANCASTER AVE, BRYN MAWR PA 19010