Middlesex Water
MSEX · Water Utilities
$56.03
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 $195M for Middlesex Water, about 13 times as much.
- Essential Utilities grew revenue faster (18.6%, against 1.5%).
- Essential Utilities kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (37.2% operating margin, against 27.9% operating margin).
- Investors pay more for each dollar of Essential Utilities’s earnings: a P/E of 22.0x against 21.6x for Middlesex Water.
| Latest fiscal year | MSEX · FY25 | WTRG · FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $1.0B | $12.2B |
| Revenue | $195M | $2.5B |
| Free cash flow | — | −$420M |
| Net income | $42.8M | $616M |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | 1.5% | 18.6% |
| 5-year growth | 6.6% | 11.1% |
| Share count change | 1.1% | 2.3% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | — | — |
| Operating margin | 27.9% | 37.2% |
| Net margin | 22.0% | 24.9% |
| FCF margin | — | −17.0% |
| Return on capital | — | 6.4% |
| Return on equity | 9.1% | 9.4% |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | $384M | $8.1B |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 4.4x | 6.1x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $24.9M | $376M |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | 21.6x | 22.0x |
| Piotroski F-score | — | 5 |
FY16
MSEX $133M
WTRG $820M
FY17
MSEX $131M
WTRG $810M
FY18
MSEX $138M
WTRG $838M
FY19
MSEX $135M
WTRG $890M
FY20
MSEX $141M
WTRG $1.5B
FY21
MSEX $143M
WTRG $1.9B
FY22
MSEX $162M
WTRG $2.3B
FY23
MSEX $166M
WTRG $2.1B
FY24
MSEX $192M
WTRG $2.1B
FY25
MSEX $195M
WTRG $2.5B
MSEX
WTRG
FY16
MSEX 30.4%
WTRG 40.7%
FY17
MSEX 28.9%
WTRG 41.3%
FY18
MSEX 26.9%
WTRG 38.6%
FY19
MSEX 26.4%
WTRG 38.2%
FY20
MSEX 26.5%
WTRG 29.7%
FY21
MSEX 23.2%
WTRG 32.1%
FY22
MSEX 29.2%
WTRG 28.9%
FY23
MSEX 23.6%
WTRG 33.7%
FY24
MSEX 27.7%
WTRG 36.3%
FY25
MSEX 27.9%
WTRG 37.2%
MSEX
WTRG
FY16
MSEX —
WTRG $13.2M
FY17
MSEX —
WTRG −$96.8M
FY18
MSEX —
WTRG −$127M
FY19
MSEX —
WTRG −$212M
FY20
MSEX −$52.3M
WTRG −$328M
FY21
MSEX −$46.4M
WTRG −$376M
FY22
MSEX −$30.0M
WTRG −$462M
FY23
MSEX −$37.4M
WTRG −$266M
FY24
MSEX −$15.9M
WTRG −$559M
FY25
MSEX —
WTRG −$420M
MSEX
WTRG
FY16
MSEX —
WTRG 10.2%
FY17
MSEX —
WTRG 9.6%
FY18
MSEX —
WTRG 9.2%
FY19
MSEX —
WTRG 9.1%
FY20
MSEX —
WTRG 7.5%
FY21
MSEX 5.1%
WTRG 7.6%
FY22
MSEX 6.1%
WTRG 7.9%
FY23
MSEX 4.8%
WTRG 6.5%
FY24
MSEX —
WTRG 5.7%
FY25
MSEX —
WTRG 6.4%
MSEX
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.