UTLUnitil Corporation
Is the business good?
A genuinely good business: earnings fully cash-backed (1.7×) and margins widening.
Operating profit is fully backed by cash. Conversion is worsening vs a year ago.
Profits are tracking sales roughly one-for-one, limited operating leverage either way.
A balanced mix of margins, efficiency, and leverage. ROE 8% = margin × turnover × leverage.
Unless marked, from derived.
Where this answer is blind. The F-score rewards improvement, so an already-elite company can score mid-pack.
How good a business is UTL?
Unitil Corporation earns 5.6% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so growth costs more than it returns.
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 3.4 points below what the capital costs: growth destroys value
- Operating margin
- 19%
Operating margin · Utilities median 21% · 12 months to Q2 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.67×
Cash conversion · 2.00× a year ago · operating cash flow covers the operating profit after tax
- Share count, year on year
- +11%
Share count, year on year · shareholders own a smaller slice than a year ago
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 17% |
| FY2021 | 16% |
| FY2022 | 14% |
| FY2023 | 16% |
| FY2024 | 18% |
| FY2025 | 19% |
Details›
- Operating margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 19%
- Net margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 9.5%
- Free cash flow margin
- −7.6%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $597M
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- −$46M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $57M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 5.6%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion is operating cash flow over operating profit after tax.