Stockholders’ Equity

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2025

Note 14 – Stockholders’ Equity

At December 31, 2025, the Company had 600,000,000 shares of common stock authorized; par value $0.50. Shares outstanding and treasury shares held were as follows:



	December 31,
	2025	2024	2023
Shares outstanding	283,082,809	274,823,591	273,296,037
Treasury shares	3,423,086	3,386,069	3,299,191

At December 31, 2025, the Company had 1,770,819 shares of authorized but unissued Series Preferred Stock, $1.00 par value.

On January 23, 2026, the Company’s Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.3426 per share, payable March 2, 2026, to all shareholders of record on February 9, 2026. We expect to pay $96,996 in connection with this dividend.

In March 2024, the Company filed a new universal shelf registration with the SEC to allow for the potential future offer and sale by the Company, from time to time, in one or more public offerings, of an indeterminate amount of our common stock, preferred stock, debt securities, and other securities specified therein at indeterminate prices. This registration statement is effective for three years and replaces a similar filing that expired in the second quarter of 2024.

The Company has an acquisition shelf registration statement on file with the SEC which permits the offering, from time to time, of an aggregate of $500,000 in shares of common stock and shares of preferred stock in connection with acquisitions. The balance remaining available for use under the acquisition shelf registration statement as of December 31, 2025 is $487,155.

The form and terms of any securities issued under the universal shelf registration statement and the acquisition shelf registration statement will be determined at the time of issuance.

The Company has a Dividend Reinvestment and Direct Stock Purchase Plan (“Plan”) that allows reinvested dividends to be used to purchase shares of common stock at a five percent discount from the current market value. Under the direct stock purchase program, shares are issued throughout the year. The shares issued under the Plan are either shares purchased by the Company’s transfer agent in the open-market or original issue shares. In 2025, 2024, and 2023, the Company sold 416,037, 433,688, and 430,487 original issue shares of common stock through the dividend reinvestment portion of the Plan, for net proceeds of $15,301, $15,476, and $16,005, respectively.

The Company recorded a regulatory asset for the underfunded status of its pension and other post-retirement benefit plans that would otherwise be charged to other comprehensive income, as it anticipates recovery of its costs through customer rates.

At-the-Market Offering

On August 13, 2024, the Company filed a prospectus supplement under the 2024 universal shelf registration statement relating to a new at-the-market equity sales program (“ATM”), under which it may issue and sell shares of its common stock up to an aggregate offering price of $1,000,000 (“2024 ATM”). This 2024 ATM replaced the Company’s previous ATM filed on October 14, 2022 (“2022 ATM”).

During the year ended December 31, 2025, the Company issued 7,671,350 shares of common stock for net proceeds of $300,117 under the 2024 ATM. As of December 31, 2025, the 2024 ATM had approximately $663,750 of equity available for issuance. During year ended December 31, 2024, the Company issued 925,497 shares of common stock for net proceeds of $36,134 under the 2024 ATM. During the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company issued 8,938,839 shares of common stock for net proceeds of $322,983 under the 2022 ATM. The Company used the net proceeds from the sales of shares through the ATM for working capital, capital expenditures, water and wastewater utility acquisitions, and repaying a portion of outstanding indebtedness.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for equity.

+ References

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+ Details

Essential Utilities, Inc. 10-K