Analysts Set California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) Target Price at $55.00

Shares of California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Buy” by the three analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, one has given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $55.00.

CWT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird set a $55.00 price objective on California Water Service Group in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of California Water Service Group in a report on Wednesday, October 8th.

Institutional Trading of California Water Service Group

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CWT. Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of California Water Service Group by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 15,302 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $696,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System increased its holdings in California Water Service Group by 1.5% in the third quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 17,627 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $809,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in California Water Service Group by 0.5% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 54,416 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,475,000 after buying an additional 278 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank boosted its holdings in California Water Service Group by 1.8% during the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 17,260 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $792,000 after buying an additional 306 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of California Water Service Group by 109.9% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 697 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.78% of the company’s stock.

California Water Service Group Stock Performance

California Water Service Group stock opened at $43.01 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $45.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $45.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. California Water Service Group has a 12-month low of $41.29 and a 12-month high of $51.63.

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.20 by ($0.17). California Water Service Group had a net margin of 13.61% and a return on equity of 8.23%. The company had revenue of $311.24 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $321.35 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.03 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that California Water Service Group will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

California Water Service Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 21st. Investors of record on Monday, November 10th were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 10th. California Water Service Group’s payout ratio is 52.40%.

California Water Service Group Company Profile

California Water Service Group (NYSE: CWT) is a publicly traded holding company that provides regulated water utility services through its subsidiaries. The company delivers safe, reliable drinking water and wastewater management to residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers across California, Hawaii and New Mexico. Its principal operating units include California Water Service, New Mexico Water Service and Hawaii Water Service, each responsible for end‐to‐end water supply operations—from source development and treatment to distribution and customer service.

Founded in 1926 as the California Water Service Company, the group has grown to become one of the largest investor‐owned water utilities in the United States by customer count.