UTL · Utilities(electric & other services combined) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
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Unitil Corp reported revenue of $536.0 million in fiscal 2025, after growing 3.1% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin held steady at about 18.9% from 2017, and it earned 6.1% on its invested capital in the latest year. Of the $915.0 million its operations generated over 10 years, 130.8% went back into the business and 24.0% to dividends; the share count rose 19.0%. On the accounting screens, it passes 4 of 8 Piotroski tests and its Altman Z'' of 0.46 is in the distress zone; 1 of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 2025536.0M+3.1% a year over 9 years
Operating margin18.9%gross margin —
Return on invested capital6.1%6.3% on average over 4 years
Free cash flow-53.8M-10.0% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA—net debt 654.9M
Piotroski F-score4/8tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
0200M400M600M
2017Revenue 406.2MOperating income 75.4M
2018Revenue 444.1MOperating income 71.2M
2019Revenue 438.2MOperating income 73.1M
2020Revenue 418.6MOperating income 71.4M
2021Revenue 473.3MOperating income 77.8M
2022Revenue 563.2MOperating income 80.5M
2023
2023Revenue 557.1MOperating income 87.1M
2024Revenue 494.8MOperating income 90.6M
2025Revenue 536.0MOperating income 101.2M
2017201820192020202120222023202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
—
+2.5%
+3.1%
Operating income
—
+5.4%
+3.3%
Net income
—
+6.8%
+6.3%
Earnings per share
—
+5.0%
+4.2%
Dividend per share
—
+3.2%
+2.4%
Shares
—
+1.8%
+2.0%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
GrossOperatingNetFree cash flow
-20%-10%0%10%20%
2017Operating 18.6%Net 7.1%Free cash flow -8.1%
2018Operating 16.0%Net 7.4%Free cash flow -5.4%
2019Operating 16.7%Net 10.1%Free cash flow -3.3%
2020Operating 17.1%Net 7.7%Free cash flow -11.2%
2021Operating 16.4%Net 7.6%Free cash flow -1.5%
2022Operating 14.3%Net 7.4%Free cash flow -4.3%
2023
2023Operating 15.6%Net 8.1%Free cash flow -6.1%
2024Operating 18.3%Net 9.5%Free cash flow -8.9%
2025Operating 18.9%Net 9.4%Free cash flow -10.0%
2017201820192020202120222023202320242025
Return on invested capital
Return on invested capital
0%2%4%6%8%
2017Return on invested capital 6.3%
2018Return on invested capital 7.5%
2019Return on invested capital 6.7%
2020Return on invested capital 5.9%
2021Return on invested capital 6.2%
2022Return on invested capital 6.6%
2023
2023Return on invested capital 6.7%
2024Return on invested capital 6.0%
2025Return on invested capital 6.1%
2017201820192020202120222023202320242025
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
8.2%
Return on assets
2.4%
Asset turnover
0.25×
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
-100M-50M050M100M
2017Net income 29.0MFree cash flow -33.1M
2018Net income 33.0MFree cash flow -23.9M
2019Net income 44.2MFree cash flow -14.3M
2020Net income 32.2MFree cash flow -46.9M
2021Net income 36.1MFree cash flow -7.2M
2022Net income 41.4MFree cash flow -24.4M
2023
2023Net income 45.2MFree cash flow -34.0M
2024Net income 47.1MFree cash flow -44.0M
2025Net income 50.2MFree cash flow -53.8M
2017201820192020202120222023202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2017–2025
915.0M generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 131%1.2B
Acquisitions 18%160.4M
Dividends 24%219.4M
Share buybacks 0%0
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -72%-661.4M
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
-$4-$2$0$2$4
2017Earnings per share $2.06Free cash flow per share $-2.35Dividend per share $1.45
2018Earnings per share $2.23Free cash flow per share $-1.61Dividend per share $1.47
2019Earnings per share $2.97Free cash flow per share $-0.96Dividend per share $1.48
2020Earnings per share $2.15Free cash flow per share $-3.14Dividend per share $1.51
2021Earnings per share $2.35Free cash flow per share $-0.47Dividend per share $1.53
2022Earnings per share $2.59Free cash flow per share $-1.53Dividend per share $1.57
2023
2023Earnings per share $2.82Free cash flow per share $-2.12Dividend per share $1.63
2024Earnings per share $2.92Free cash flow per share $-2.73Dividend per share $1.71
2025Earnings per share $2.99Free cash flow per share $-3.20Dividend per share $1.79
2017201820192020202120222023202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
14M15M16M17M
2017Diluted shares 14.1M
2018Diluted shares 14.8M
2019Diluted shares 14.9M
2020Diluted shares 15.0M
2021Diluted shares 15.4M
2022Diluted shares 16.0M
2023
2023Diluted shares 16.1M
2024Diluted shares 16.1M
2025Diluted shares 16.8M
2017201820192020202120222023202320242025
Debt and liquidity
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt
0200M400M600M800M
2017Net debt 397.2M
2018Net debt 398.0M
2019Net debt 451.8M
2020Net debt 525.6M
2021Net debt 499.5M
2022Net debt 486.8M
2023
2023Net debt 507.5M
2024Net debt 637.0M
2025Net debt 654.9M
2017201820192020202120222023202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
—
Interest coverage
2× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
0.56 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 67d
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
4of 8 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
✓Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fellpassed
✕More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforefailed
✕No new sharesShare count did not growfailed
–Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✕Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforefailed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
0.46distress zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets -0.09 × 6.56-0.57
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.09 × 3.26+0.29
Operating income ÷ assets 0.05 × 6.72+0.32
Equity ÷ liabilities 0.40 × 1.05+0.42
Where it misleads: buybacks. A company that returns so much cash that its equity turns small or negative sinks the last two ratios without being anywhere near bankruptcy. Banks and insurers do not fit the model at all.
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
The accounts lack too many of the lines it needs.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
Receivables are growing 31% against revenue growing 8%.
Benign
A shift towards larger customers on longer terms, or sales concentrated at the end of the period.
Worrying
Sales are being made on looser credit, or revenue has been booked that may never be collected.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
The SEC accounts lack the lines needed for revenue, free cash flow or the share count, so there is no DCF for this company.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Every Form 4 filed in the last twelve months, read line by line: 6 filings by 6 people. Open-market purchases and sales are counted apart from awards, option exercises and shares withheld for taxes.
Bought on the open market—none in the period
Sold on the open market—none in the period
Under pre-arranged plans—of the sales followed a 10b5-1 plan set months earlier
A Form 4 says what happened, when, how many shares and at what price. It does not say why: a sale can be diversification, a tax bill or a plan fixed months earlier, and an award is pay, not a purchase. Nothing here is a reason to buy or sell anything.
Which large funds report holding it
From the Form 13F of the 28 institutions followed on this site, as of the end of their last reported quarter. A 13F is filed up to 45 days later and shows only long positions in US-listed shares.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.
