California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) Director Sells $48,400.00 in Stock

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) Director Lester Snow sold 1,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.00, for a total transaction of $48,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,316 shares in the company, valued at $805,904. This represents a 5.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

California Water Service Group Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of California Water Service Group stock traded up $0.65 on Wednesday, hitting $44.15. The stock had a trading volume of 729,836 shares, compared to its average volume of 450,470. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. California Water Service Group has a one year low of $41.29 and a one year high of $50.44. The stock has a market cap of $2.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.07, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.51. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $44.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $44.70.

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.25 by ($0.18). California Water Service Group had a return on equity of 7.06% and a net margin of 11.77%.The firm had revenue of $214.57 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $210.27 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.22 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that California Water Service Group will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

California Water Service Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 11th were paid a $0.335 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 11th. This represents a $1.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. California Water Service Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 67.00%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on CWT. Weiss Ratings raised California Water Service Group from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Robert W. Baird set a $54.00 price target on California Water Service Group in a research note on Friday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.50.

Institutional Trading of California Water Service Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Amundi lifted its position in California Water Service Group by 26.7% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 3,470,997 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $157,421,000 after buying an additional 732,004 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in California Water Service Group by 5,365.1% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 368,074 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,891,000 after buying an additional 361,339 shares during the period. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP purchased a new position in California Water Service Group during the fourth quarter valued at $10,349,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in California Water Service Group by 416.9% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 257,970 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,696,000 after buying an additional 208,061 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its position in California Water Service Group by 29.2% during the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 577,247 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,172,000 after buying an additional 130,620 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.78% of the company’s stock.

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.