H2O America (HTO) vs Essential Utilities Inc. (WTRG)

H2O America and Essential Utilities Inc. are both Utilities Regulated Water companies. Essential Utilities Inc. is the larger, with a market value of $11.3B against $2.6B — 4.3× the size. Essential Utilities Inc. trades at the lower P/E: 20.2× against 21.8×. Essential Utilities Inc. grew revenue faster over the last twelve months: 9.86% against 5.04%. Essential Utilities Inc. has the higher net margin (21.6% vs 12.9%) and the higher return on invested capital (3.63% vs 3.06%). Both pay a dividend; Essential Utilities Inc. yields more (3.40% vs 2.58%). Across the 22 metrics below, Essential Utilities Inc. leads on 15 and H2O America on 7.

Valuation

Metric HTO WTRG Utilities Regulated Water median
P/E 21.77 20.17 20.64
P/S 3.15 4.37 4.37
P/B 1.41 1.60 1.91
Price to free cash flow n/m n/m —
EV/EBITDA 14.35 14.72 14.48
EV/Sales 5.30 7.67 6.20
Earnings yield 4.59% 4.96% 4.83%
Free cash flow yield (10.46%) (4.54%) (4.54%)

Profitability

Metric HTO WTRG Utilities Regulated Water median
Gross margin 60.99% 82.59% 71.91%
Operating margin 21.48% 35.06% 29.22%
Net margin 12.91% 21.60% 20.19%
Free cash flow margin (32.90%) (19.84%) (19.49%)
Return on equity 6.46% 8.08% 9.00%
Return on assets 2.08% 2.88% 3.21%
Return on invested capital 3.06% 3.63% 4.08%

Growth

Metric HTO WTRG Utilities Regulated Water median
Revenue growth (TTM) 5.04% 9.86% 6.92%
EPS growth (last fiscal year) 1.74% 1.38% —
Revenue growth, 5-year CAGR 7.24% 11.09% 7.24%
Net income growth, 5-year CAGR 10.77% 16.69% 9.40%

Health

Metric HTO WTRG Utilities Regulated Water median
Debt to equity 1.03 1.21 0.93
Current ratio 1.67 0.78 1.01
Net debt to EBITDA 6.57 6.16 4.42

Dividend

Metric HTO WTRG Utilities Regulated Water median
Dividend yield 2.58% 3.40% 2.27%
Payout ratio 0.51 0.65 0.55

Size

Metric HTO WTRG Utilities Regulated Water median
Market cap 2.60b 11.28b 997.03m

Compare with another peer

Any metric, up to five companies and an Excel export Powerpack