Unitil Corporation (UTL) has reported a 9.68 percent rise in profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2016. The company has earned $10.20 million, or $0.73 a share in the quarter, compared with $9.30 million, or $0.67 a share for the same period last year.

Revenue during the quarter went up marginally by 1.86 percent to $104.30 million from $102.40 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter expanded 243 basis points over the previous year period to 53.12 percent. Total expenses were 79.67 percent of quarterly revenues, down from 81.25 percent for the same period last year. This has led to an improvement of 158 basis points in operating margin to 20.33 percent.

Operating income for the quarter was $21.20 million, compared with $19.20 million in the previous year period.

"Customer growth, an effective regulatory agenda and cost management all contributed to continued earnings growth in 2016," said Robert G. Schoenberger, Unitil's chairman and chief executive officer. "We grew our customer base by another 2,200 customers, achieved record levels of service reliability, and once again made significant investments to upgrade and expand our natural gas and electric distribution systems to meet our customers growing energy needs."