Utilities

Water Utilities

10 investable US stocks · data to Saturday, October 24, 2026

Acquirer's Multiple percentile today48th percentile

Dearer than in 52% of quarters since 1999Its usual range since 1999 is the 40th to 58th percentile (the middle 80% of quarters), with a median of the 48th. Lower is cheaper: the 10th percentile is cheaper than 90% of the investable US market; the 50th is the middle.

Is it cheap because returns are depressed?

The industry is in its usual range on the multiple, and returns on assets are in their usual range. Free cash flow yield is low (lower than in 76% of quarters). A low multiple can be warranted when returns on assets are low, and a high one when they are high, so the multiple reads best next to returns and free cash flow, each against the industry's own history.

Over- or under-earning?

Earning about normally

Return on assets ranks at the 57th percentile of investable US stocks, against a median of the 57th and a low of the 39th since 1999. That is close to its usual level, so today's multiple is about right on a normalized basis. If earnings normalize, the multiple would likely stay about where it is: from the 48th percentile today (about the middle of the market), around the 50th, judging by where it sat in past quarters when returns were at their usual level. If returns fell to their low, it would be around the 47th (about the middle of the market).

Percentile	Today	Returns normal	Returns at low
Return on assets (higher is better)	57th	57th (median)	39th (low)
Acquirer's Multiple (lower is cheaper)	48th	50th	47th

Water Utilities's return on assets as a percentile, quarterly since 1999. The shaded band is its usual range; the dashed line its median.

Percentiles among investable US stocks. Return on assets is operating income over total assets, trailing 12 months. The last two columns show where it sat in past quarters when returns were within 7.5 points of their median (43 quarters) and of their low (7). The past, not a forecast.

Against its own history

Each chart is the industry's median stock as a percentile of all investable US stocks, quarterly since 1999. For the Acquirer's Multiple and debt to equity, lower is better. The shaded band is its usual range (the middle 80% of quarters); the dashed line is its long-run median; the dot is today. Green shading marks the better end of each scale and red the worse, and today's dot takes the colour of where it sits.

Acquirer's MultipleUsual rangePercentile of enterprise value ÷ operating income: lower is cheaper. Dearer than in 52% of quarters since 1999.

Free cash flow yieldLower than usualPercentile of free cash flow yield: higher is a bigger yield. Lower than in 76% of quarters since 1999.

Shareholder yieldNear its lowestDividends plus buybacks, as a percentile: higher is a bigger yield. Lower than in 90% of quarters since 1999.

Dividend yieldHigher than usualPercentile of dividend yield: higher is a bigger yield. Higher than in 72% of quarters since 1999.

Return on assets, 5-yrUsual rangePercentile of five-year return on assets: higher is better. Higher than in 53% of quarters since 1999.

Debt to equityLess debt than usualPercentile of debt to equity: lower is less debt. Less indebted than in 78% of quarters since 1999.

Company sizeUsual rangePercentile of market cap: higher is larger. Smaller than in 57% of quarters since 1999.

Water Utilities stocks in the screens today

In today's screens, cheapest first. ● marks one of a screen's 30 tracked picks.

Stock	Screen	Acquirer's Multiple	FCF yield	Shareholder yield

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Other Utilities industries

Energy Utilities dearer than 87%

Quarterly since 1999 from point-in-time data. Each quarter, every investable US stock (price above $3, market cap above $75M, average daily trading above $850,000, no OTC, ADRs or MLPs) is placed in a percentile (0-100) against all the others on each metric. An industry's value is the median percentile of its stocks. Industries follow FactSet's RBICS classification. Percentiles describe the past; they are not investment advice or a forecast.