California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) Receives $56.00 Average Target Price from Brokerages

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the four research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $56.00.

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of California Water Service Group in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of California Water Service Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of California Water Service Group from $59.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 1st.

California Water Service Group Stock Down 4.6%

CWT opened at $45.27 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $46.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $46.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.53 and a quick ratio of 0.50. California Water Service Group has a one year low of $41.64 and a one year high of $52.83.

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.17). The firm had revenue of $311.24 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $321.35 million. California Water Service Group had a net margin of 13.71% and a return on equity of 8.28%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.03 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that California Water Service Group will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

California Water Service Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 21st. Investors of record on Monday, November 10th will be paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 10th. California Water Service Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.40%.

Institutional Trading of California Water Service Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CWT. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in California Water Service Group by 2.6% in the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 10,806 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $524,000 after buying an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in California Water Service Group by 113.0% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 18,946 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $918,000 after buying an additional 10,050 shares in the last quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in California Water Service Group by 1.5% in the first quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 62,502 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,029,000 after buying an additional 924 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new stake in California Water Service Group in the first quarter worth approximately $74,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in California Water Service Group by 2.6% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 296,379 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,363,000 after buying an additional 7,456 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.78% of the company’s stock.

About California Water Service Group

California Water Service Group, through its subsidiaries, provides water utility and other related services in California, Washington, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Texas. The company is involved in the production, purchase, storage, treatment, testing, distribution, and sale of water for domestic, industrial, public, and irrigation uses, as well as for fire protection services.