Forensic Analysis · Utilities · as of Aug 11, 2026

Essential Utilities, Inc. (WTRG)

A forensic read on Essential Utilities, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

C · Mixed — selective

Forensic grade

Grey Zone

Financial health

1.6

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

20.1

P / E (ttm)

9.0%

ROE

$11.3B

Market cap

3.55%

Dividend yield

18.6%

Revenue growth

This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.

Essential Utilities, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.6, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.

What the filings flag

+2.2%/yr

FY2022–FY2025

Share-count dilution. Diluted share count changed +7% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+2.2%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~2.2% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2022 has been diluted ~6%.

0.5% of rev

FY2025

Stock-based comp load. Stock-based compensation ran 0.5% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.05 per diluted share. The cost of it is not in the cash flow — no cash left the business — it is in the count: holders gave up about 2.2% of the company a year, and that rate is not falling. That is the figure to weigh, not the share of free cash flow.

4.4%

FY2025

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 4.4% in the latest fiscal year and steady — slightly below its ~6% cost of capital — reinvestment is roughly a wash.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$2.47B

Revenue Growth YoY+18.6%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)+2.6%

Net Margin24.9%

Return on Equity9.0%

Debt / Equity1.19x

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 11, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.