American States Water (NYSE:AWR) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.43

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, May 7th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 20th will be paid a dividend of 0.43 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.30%.

American States Water has raised its dividend by an average of 8.9% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 70 years. American States Water has a payout ratio of 52.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect American States Water to earn $3.30 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 52.1%.

American States Water Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of AWR stock traded up $1.14 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $74.92. 29,061 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 228,175. American States Water has a 12-month low of $66.03 and a 12-month high of $92.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $70.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $75.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 0.43.

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.62. The business had revenue of $135.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.00 million. American States Water had a net margin of 20.97% and a return on equity of 13.54%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.54 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that American States Water will post 3.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of American States Water from $79.00 to $77.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 23rd.

Insider Buying and Selling at American States Water

In other news, Director Thomas A. Eichelberger acquired 1,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $71.21 per share, with a total value of $99,694.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 5,850 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $416,578.50. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.82% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

American States Water Company Profile

American States Water Company, through its subsidiaries, provides water and electric services to residential, commercial, industrial, and other customers in the United States. It operates through three segments: Water, Electric, and Contracted Services. The company purchases, produces, distributes, and sells water, as well as distributes electricity.