Unitil slips on $65 mln equity raise

** Shares of New England utility firm Unitil UTL.N down 3.3% premarket to $47.49 after overnight equity offering priced

** New Hampshire-based electricity and natural gas provider late Thurs sold ~1.4 mln shares at $46.65 for total raise of $65 mln

** Offering price is 5% discount to stock's last sale

** It intends to use net offering proceeds to make equity capital contributions to its regulated utility subsidiaries, repay indebtedness, and for general corporate purposes

** Wells Fargo and Scotia Capital are active bookrunners for the offering, joined by Janney Montgomery as bookrunner

** UTL has ~16.29 mln shares outstanding for $800 mln market cap

** Co's stock is very thinly traded with 90-day avg daily volume of about 67,000 shares, per LSEG data

** Shares, which went x-dividend on Thurs, closed down 1.6% and off ~9% YTD

** Just two analysts cover UTL with avg rating of "strongbuy" and PTs of $56 and $63, per LSEG