Middlesex Water Company’s MSEX steady capital investment, customer additions, and contribution from acquired and organic assets are boosting its performance.

Let us focus on the factors that make this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock a strong investment pick at the moment.

MSEX’s Growth Projections & Surprise History

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 and 2026 earnings per share has moved up by 3.3% and 3.1%, respectively, in the past 60 days.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 and 2026 revenues has moved up by 3.71% and 6.53%, respectively.

Middlesex Water’s earnings beat the consensus mark in three out of the last four quarters and missed on one occasion, with the average surprise being 19.7%.

MSEX’s Long Dividend History & Dividend Yield

Courtesy of its steady performance, management has been able to increase dividends for 52 consecutive years. The company has continued to pay dividends to its shareholders since 1912. MSEX’s current annual dividend rate is $1.36 per share and its dividend yield is currently pegged at 2.13%, which is better than the S&P 500’s yield of 1.73%.

Another water utility, California Water Service CWT, is also a consistent performer and has a long history of dividend payments. CWT’s current quarterly dividend of 30 cents per share marks a 7.1% increase from the prior quarter. This marks its 320th consecutive quarter and 58th consecutive increase, resulting in an annualized dividend of $1.20 per share. CWT’s current dividend yield is 2.48%.

Debt to Capital of MSEX

Middlesex Water’s total debt to capital is currently pegged at 46.19% compared with its industry average of 56.29%. This shows that the company is managing its business with lower debts compared with industry peers.

Times interest earned ratio of the company at the end of fourth-quarter 2024 was 4.7, which indicates that it has enough financial flexibility to meet interest obligations.

MSEX’s Regular Investments

Middlesex Water makes consistent investments to upgrade and maintain the existing infrastructure for providing 24/7 reliable services to the expanding customer base. The company has plans to invest $387 million during the 2025-2027 time period to strengthen its water and wastewater infrastructure as well as provide services to customers in a safe, reliable and efficient manner.

Water utility American Water Works AWK is also very active in upgrading its water and wastewater infrastructure as well as making regular investments. American Water has plans to invest $3.3 billion in 2025. AWK aims to invest in the range of $17-$18 billion in the 2025-2029 period to further strengthen its operations.

Another company, Essential Utilities WTRG, plans to invest $1.4-$1.5 billion in its infrastructure in 2025. WTRG also plans to invest $7.8 billion through 2025-2029 to improve the water and natural gas systems, and better serve customers using enhanced information technology.

MSEX’s Price Performance

Over the past year, the stock has gained 28.5% compared with the industry’s growth of 13.4%.

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American Water Works Company, Inc. (AWK) : Free Stock Analysis Report

California Water Service Group (CWT) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Middlesex Water Company (MSEX) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Essential Utilities Inc. (WTRG) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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