Middlesex Water Continues RENEW Program, To Invest $10M

Middlesex Water Company (NASDAQ:MSEX) announced that it has initiated a $10 million Water Infrastructure Upgrade project to replace existing water infrastructure in the Borough of South Plainfield, NJ. The company expects to take six months to complete the Infrastructure upgrade work.

The company will aim to replace five miles of old and soiled water mains along with changing the service lines, valves, fire hydrants and meters on its way.

RENEW Program

This Infrastructure upgrade is a part of the Middlesex Water’s annual water distribution system RENEW Program. Through this program, the company intends to undertake several water infrastructural projects.

The objective of this program is to upgrade underground water mains, valves, fire hydrants and service lines meters that supply clean drinking water throughout service area. This initiative involves the replacement of water mains with new piping systems as opposed to cleaning and lining older mains carried out by the company in prior years.

Recent Projects

During the end of Mar 2017, Middlesex Water commenced a $1.8 million transmission main replacement project in the borough of Sayreville, NJ that is expected to be completed by mid May.

The company also began $160 million Infrastructure Water For Tomorrow campaign during the month of March to replace water transmission pipelines that transmits water across in Carteret, Edison, Metuchen, South Amboy, South Plainfield and Woodbridge, NJ.

Middlesex Water Company Price

Looking Ahead

In connection with the RENEW Program alone, Middlesex anticipates to spend approximately $11.8 million in 2017 and $11.2 million in both 2018 and 2019.

It expects to incur $222.9 million for capital expenditures (including Distribution/Network System, Production System, and Information Technology Systems) through 2019 for improving their utility system assets and other planned expansion projects.

The company expects to spend approximately $134.9 million towards Distribution/Network Systems, $64.3 million towards Production Systems, $5 million towards Information Technology (IT) Systems and $18.7 million on other capital expenditures for years 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Planned projects also include construction of a large supplementary transmission main, conversion to ozone treatment, water meter relocations, booster station upgrades, additional elevated storage needs – designed to enhance reliability, resiliency and water quality for customers.

Stocks to Consider

Middlesex Water currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Investors can consider better-ranked stocks from the same sector like Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (TO:AQN) , Avangrid, Inc. (NYSE:AGR) and Unitil Corp. (NYSE:UTL) . All the three stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Algonquin Power & Utilities delivered a positive earnings surprise of 11.76% in first-quarter 2017. Its current quarter 2017 estimates have risen by 25% to 10 cents per share in the last 60 days.

Avangrid pulled off a positive earnings surprise of 7.35% in first-quarter 2017. Its 2017 estimates have risen by 0.5% to $2.21 per share in the last 60 days.

Unitil Corporation delivered a positive earnings surprise of 2.33% in first-quarter 2017. Its 2017 estimates have risen by 1% to $2.09 per share in the last 60 days.

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