Consolidated Water (NASDAQ:CWCO) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Consolidated Water (NASDAQ:CWCO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Separately, Roth Capital upped their price objective on shares of Consolidated Water from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $40.00.

Consolidated Water Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of CWCO opened at $34.52 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $549.90 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.31 and a beta of 0.57. Consolidated Water has a 1-year low of $22.69 and a 1-year high of $34.59. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.32.

Consolidated Water (NASDAQ:CWCO) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 11th. The utilities provider reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.12. Consolidated Water had a net margin of 12.24% and a return on equity of 7.77%. The business had revenue of $33.59 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $32.75 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that Consolidated Water will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Consolidated Water Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st will be given a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 1st. Consolidated Water’s payout ratio is presently 34.57%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Raymond Whittaker sold 4,755 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.35, for a total value of $158,579.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 1,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,350. The trade was a 82.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 6.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Consolidated Water

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CWCO. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in shares of Consolidated Water in the second quarter valued at about $31,013,000. Heartland Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Consolidated Water by 146.8% in the first quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. now owns 270,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,615,000 after acquiring an additional 160,657 shares during the period. Seizert Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Consolidated Water in the first quarter valued at about $3,687,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Consolidated Water by 18.9% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 637,378 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $19,134,000 after acquiring an additional 101,434 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Consolidated Water in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,167,000. Institutional investors own 55.16% of the company’s stock.

About Consolidated Water

Consolidated Water Co Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, designs, constructs, manages, and operates water production and water treatment plants primarily in the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas, and the United States. The company operates through four segments: Retail, Bulk, Services, and Manufacturing.