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  "documentTitle": "Essential Utilities, Inc. (WTRG)",
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  "authorName": "Spruce Point Capital Management",
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  "presentationDate": "2023-03-08 00:00:00",
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      "text": "Be careful when management frequently changes how it discusses customers",
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      "text": "WTRG's appears to be shifting its discussion in references to unit customer additions to its business from \"customer connections\", to \"equivalent dwelling units\", and finally \"equivalent retail customers or equivalent dwelling units\". To the best of our knowledge, WTRG has never defined how it calculates an equivalent dwelling unit. We call on management to explain why it cannot consistently describe its unit growth.",
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      "text": "WTRG's appears to be shifting its discussion in references to unit customer additions to its business from \"customer connections\", to \"equivalent dwelling units\", and finally \"equivalent retail customers or equivalent dwelling units\".",
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      "text": "2021: \"Equivalent Retail Customers or Equivalent Dwelling Units\" (Key Accomplishments: 2 municipal acquisitions, $471M pending, $1B infrastructure, Aqua/Peoples integration)",
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      "text": "2019: \"Customer Connections\" (Key Accomplishments: 6.2% revenue growth, $1.04 EPS, 12,000 connections added, DELCORA acquisition)",
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      "text": "2020: \"Equivalent Dwelling Units\" (Key Accomplishments: 5 municipal acquisitions, $365.6M in rate base, $900M infrastructure, Aqua/Peoples integration)",
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      "text": "Source: Proxy Statement, 2020, 2021, 2022",
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      "text": "Warning: Beware of Shifting Definitions Used To Measure Customers",
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