H2O America
HTO · Water Utilities
$58.90
0.4%Essential Utilities
WTRG · Water Utilities
$43.11
0.4%The short version
- Essential Utilities is the larger business, with $2.5B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $801M for H2O America, about 3.1 times as much.
- Essential Utilities grew revenue faster (18.6%, against 7.0%).
- Essential Utilities kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (37.2% operating margin, against 22.2% operating margin).
- Essential Utilities earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (6.4%, against 4.9%).
- Investors pay more for each dollar of Essential Utilities’s earnings: a P/E of 22.0x against 20.2x for H2O America.
| Latest fiscal year | HTO · FY25 | WTRG · FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $2.3B | $12.2B |
| Revenue | $801M | $2.5B |
| Free cash flow | — | −$420M |
| Net income | $103M | $616M |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | 7.0% | 18.6% |
| 5-year growth | 7.2% | 11.1% |
| Share count change | 7.1% | 2.3% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | — | — |
| Operating margin | 22.2% | 37.2% |
| Net margin | 12.8% | 24.9% |
| FCF margin | — | −17.0% |
| Return on capital | 4.9% | 6.4% |
| Return on equity | 7.1% | 9.4% |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | $1.9B | $8.1B |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 6.3x | 6.1x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $58.6M | $376M |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | 20.2x | 22.0x |
| Piotroski F-score | 4 | 5 |
FY16
HTO $340M
WTRG $820M
FY17
HTO $389M
WTRG $810M
FY18
HTO $398M
WTRG $838M
FY19
HTO $421M
WTRG $890M
FY20
HTO $565M
WTRG $1.5B
FY21
HTO $574M
WTRG $1.9B
FY22
HTO $621M
WTRG $2.3B
FY23
HTO $670M
WTRG $2.1B
FY24
HTO $748M
WTRG $2.1B
FY25
HTO $801M
WTRG $2.5B
HTO
WTRG
FY16
HTO 28.7%
WTRG 40.7%
FY17
HTO 26.2%
WTRG 41.3%
FY18
HTO 18.5%
WTRG 38.6%
FY19
HTO 13.7%
WTRG 38.2%
FY20
HTO 20.8%
WTRG 29.7%
FY21
HTO 19.4%
WTRG 32.1%
FY22
HTO 21.1%
WTRG 28.9%
FY23
HTO 22.3%
WTRG 33.7%
FY24
HTO 22.8%
WTRG 36.3%
FY25
HTO 22.2%
WTRG 37.2%
HTO
WTRG
FY16
HTO —
WTRG $13.2M
FY17
HTO —
WTRG −$96.8M
FY18
HTO —
WTRG −$127M
FY19
HTO —
WTRG −$212M
FY20
HTO —
WTRG −$328M
FY21
HTO —
WTRG −$376M
FY22
HTO —
WTRG −$462M
FY23
HTO —
WTRG −$266M
FY24
HTO —
WTRG −$559M
FY25
HTO —
WTRG −$420M
HTO
WTRG
FY16
HTO 7.4%
WTRG 10.2%
FY17
HTO 7.4%
WTRG 9.6%
FY18
HTO 6.5%
WTRG 9.2%
FY19
HTO 2.8%
WTRG 9.1%
FY20
HTO 4.7%
WTRG 7.5%
FY21
HTO 4.1%
WTRG 7.6%
FY22
HTO 4.6%
WTRG 7.9%
FY23
HTO 5.2%
WTRG 6.5%
FY24
HTO 5.3%
WTRG 5.7%
FY25
HTO 4.9%
WTRG 6.4%
HTO
WTRG
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Each company's latest fiscal year; fiscal years end in different months. The best value in each row is highlighted where higher (or lower) is clearly better. Not investment advice.