Insider Selling: California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) VP Sells $171,248.00 in Stock

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) VP Michael Mares, Jr. sold 3,892 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.00, for a total value of $171,248.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 8,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $375,100. The trade was a 31.34% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

California Water Service Group Stock Performance

CWT opened at $45.01 on Friday. California Water Service Group has a 52-week low of $41.29 and a 52-week high of $51.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.68 billion, a PE ratio of 20.94, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.26.

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $265.61 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $239.10 million. California Water Service Group had a return on equity of 7.67% and a net margin of 12.82%.The business’s revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that California Water Service Group will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

California Water Service Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 9th were issued a $0.335 dividend. This represents a $1.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 9th. This is a boost from California Water Service Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. California Water Service Group’s payout ratio is currently 62.33%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On California Water Service Group

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CWT. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of California Water Service Group by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,346,457 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $318,322,000 after buying an additional 34,155 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of California Water Service Group by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,337,205 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $144,602,000 after acquiring an additional 36,296 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of California Water Service Group by 20.3% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,738,993 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $118,634,000 after acquiring an additional 462,394 shares during the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC raised its stake in California Water Service Group by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 1,825,390 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $79,094,000 after acquiring an additional 60,931 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in California Water Service Group by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,420,950 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $61,579,000 after acquiring an additional 4,613 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of California Water Service Group in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.00.

About California Water Service Group

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.