WTRGEssential Utilities, Inc.
Is it safe?
Solid, nothing alarming. Balance sheet to watch.
Mixed, watch the balance sheet Altman Z-score, a bankruptcy-risk model from five balance-sheet ratios.
Insiders were net sellers (-$113K, 90 days to Oct 9, 2026), selling is often routine.
Investment-grade balance sheet. A rule of thumb on leverage, not a credit rating.
Relatively steady, low volatility. Worst drawdown -40% · now 7% below its 52-week high.
Unless marked, from SEC EDGAR, as of Dec 31, 2025.
Against the whole market›
Percentile against every name Ryufin tracks. Higher is better; the tick marks the middle of the market. Context, not one of the checks above.
Where this answer is blind. Altman sits structurally low for utilities and pipelines; Beneish runs high for fast growers, since sales growth alone lifts it; banks and REITs are excluded.
Can WTRG take a bad year?
Essential Utilities, Inc. carries $8.45B of net debt at 6.31× EBITDA: a heavy load to carry through a bad year.
Net debt · as at Q2 2026 · over four years of earnings before interest, tax and depreciation, heavy
- Net debt / EBITDA
- 6.31×
Net debt / EBITDA · 5.96× a year ago · the load is going up
- Altman Z-score
- 0.95
Altman Z-score · distress zone, below 1.8
- Cash runway
- 0.0 years
Cash runway · burning $113M a quarter at the current rate
Details›
- Total debtQ2 2026
- $8.46B
- Cash and short-term investments
- $8.6M
- Net debt
- $8.45B
- EBITDA, trailing twelve months
- $1.34B
- Operating profit, trailing twelve months
- $901M
- Debt / equity
- 1.21×
- Total debt / EBITDA
- 6.32×
- Annualised volatilitytwo years of daily moves
- 22%
- Worst drawdown on file
- −40%
- Below its 52-week high
- 6.7%
Balance sheet from SEC filings; drawdown and volatility from end-of-day closes; Altman Z from the filed statements.