UGI Corporation’s UGI strategic investment plans that help upgrade and replace the aging infrastructure boost its performance. Given its growth opportunities and strong return on equity (ROE), UGI makes for a solid investment option in the utility sector.

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

UGI’s Growth Projections & Surprise History

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2025 earnings per share (EPS) has moved up 2.7% in the past 60 days to $3.04.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for sales is pinned at $7.82 billion, indicating a year-over-year increase of 8.4%.  

UGI’s long-term (three to five years) earnings growth rate is 4.8%. The company delivered a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 74.8%.

Return on Equity of UGI

ROE indicates how efficiently a company has been utilizing the funds to generate higher returns. Currently, UGI’s ROE is 15.2%, higher than the industry’s average of 9.25%. This indicates that the company has been utilizing the funds more constructively than its peers in the utility gas distribution industry.

UGI’s Solvency Ratio

The time-to-interest earned ratio at the end of the fiscal first quarter of 2025 was 3.2. The ratio, being greater than one, reflects the company’s ability to meet future interest obligations without difficulties.

UGI’s Dividend History

The consistent strong performance of the company has enabled it to reward its shareholders through annual dividend rate hikes. UGI has been paying dividends for the last 140 years. Currently, its quarterly dividend is 37.5 cents per share, resulting in an annualized dividend of $1.50. The company’s current dividend yield of 4.53% is better than the industry’s average of 3.34%.

UGI’s Strategic Investments

UGI continues to make systematic capital investments to address the various capital projects and further enhance the safety and reliability of natural gas production and storage facilities. It is also replacing the aging infrastructure to modernize the system. These additions and upgrades allow it to serve the expanding customer base efficiently. It plans to invest $800-$900 million in fiscal 2025 to strengthen its operations, and $3.7-$4.1 billion through fiscal 2027. The company recovers nearly 90% of its capital investments within 12 months, owing to timely rate revisions and approvals.

UGI’s Stock Price Performance

In the past six months, shares of the company have risen 38.1% against the industry’s 0.7% decline.

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Other Stocks to Consider

A few other top-ranked stocks from the same industry are New Jersey Resources NJR, Southwest Gas SWX and Chesapeake Utilities CPK, each holding a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NJR’s fiscal 2025 EPS implies year-over-year growth of 7.5%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2025 sales indicates an increase of 2.5% from the top line reported in fiscal 2024.

SWX’s long-term earnings growth rate is 6.61%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 EPS indicates a year-over-year increase of 16.8%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CPK’s fiscal 2025 EPS indicates year-over-year growth of 16.1%. The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 2.4% in the last four quarters.

 

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Southwest Gas Corporation (SWX) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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

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