California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) Lowered to “Sell” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note published on Saturday.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on CWT. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of California Water Service Group from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of California Water Service Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th.

California Water Service Group Stock Up 0.2%

CWT opened at $47.00 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $48.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.34. California Water Service Group has a twelve month low of $41.64 and a twelve month high of $56.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.58, a PEG ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 0.70.

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.06. California Water Service Group had a net margin of 19.56% and a return on equity of 13.24%. The firm had revenue of $203.97 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $194.80 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.21 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that California Water Service Group will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

California Water Service Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th were paid a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.55%. California Water Service Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.63%.

Institutional Trading of California Water Service Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of California Water Service Group by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 17,851 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $809,000 after purchasing an additional 1,942 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of California Water Service Group by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,360,158 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $61,670,000 after purchasing an additional 22,192 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its stake in shares of California Water Service Group by 36.9% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 21,550 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $977,000 after purchasing an additional 5,806 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of California Water Service Group by 66.7% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 24,736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,121,000 after purchasing an additional 9,894 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its stake in shares of California Water Service Group by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 62,044 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,812,000 after purchasing an additional 4,903 shares in the last quarter. 82.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

California Water Service Group Company Profile

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.