California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) Short Interest Up 70.4% in August

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totaling 2,429,274 shares, an increase of 70.4% from the August 15th total of 1,425,414 shares. Approximately 4.0% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 468,427 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.2 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CWT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings raised California Water Service Group from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Seaport Research Partners reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $53.00 target price on shares of California Water Service Group in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of California Water Service Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, California Water Service Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $54.00.

California Water Service Group Price Performance

CWT traded down $0.18 during trading on Thursday, reaching $47.87. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 366,128 shares, compared to its average volume of 486,818. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $50.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $47.05. California Water Service Group has a 1 year low of $41.29 and a 1 year high of $53.82. The company has a market cap of $2.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.56, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.50.

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $308.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $283.50 million. California Water Service Group had a return on equity of 7.74% and a net margin of 12.63%.The business’s revenue was up 16.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that California Water Service Group will post 2.57 EPS for the current year.

California Water Service Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 10th were paid a $0.335 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 10th. This represents a $1.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. California Water Service Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 60.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Lester A. Snow sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.21, for a total transaction of $25,105.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 17,817 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $894,591.57. This represents a 2.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Thomas M. Krummel sold 3,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.37, for a total value of $186,369.00. Following the sale, the director owned 20,104 shares in the company, valued at $1,012,638.48. This trade represents a 15.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.78% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CWT. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in California Water Service Group during the second quarter worth about $523,255,000. Nuance Investments LLC purchased a new position in California Water Service Group during the second quarter worth about $53,324,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in California Water Service Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $39,285,000. Amundi boosted its holdings in California Water Service Group by 26.7% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 3,470,997 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $157,421,000 after purchasing an additional 732,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in California Water Service Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,642,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.78% of the company’s stock.

About California Water Service Group

California Water Service Group (NYSE: CWT) is a water utility holding company that provides regulated water service to residential, commercial, industrial and public-sector customers. Its operating companies collect, treat, test and distribute drinking water through local water systems, while also maintaining the wells, reservoirs, treatment facilities, pipelines and other infrastructure needed to deliver reliable service.

The company operates primarily through California Water Service Company, along with subsidiaries serving customers in Hawaii, New Mexico and Washington.