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