VIPR (OTCMKTS:VIPV) versus California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) Financial Survey

VIPR (OTCMKTS:VIPV) and California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, profitability and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

82.8% of California Water Service Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.7% of VIPR shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of California Water Service Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares VIPR and California Water Service Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
VIPR	N/A	N/A	N/A
California Water Service Group	12.63%	7.74%	2.32%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for VIPR and California Water Service Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
VIPR	0	0	0	0	0.00
California Water Service Group	0	1	0	0	2.00

California Water Service Group has a consensus target price of $54.00, indicating a potential upside of 8.83%. Given California Water Service Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe California Water Service Group is more favorable than VIPR.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares VIPR and California Water Service Group”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
VIPR	N/A	N/A	N/A	($3.49)	N/A
California Water Service Group	$1.00 billion	3.07	$128.21 million	$2.22	22.35

California Water Service Group has higher revenue and earnings than VIPR. VIPR is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than California Water Service Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

California Water Service Group beats VIPR on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About VIPR

VIPR Corp. focuses on the acquisition, development, and marketing of strategic nutraceutical and nutraceutical related products for personal consumption, apparel, and home applications. VIPR Corp. was formerly known as S2C Global Systems Inc. and changed its name to VIPR Corp. in August 2014. The company is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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. It offers its services to approximately 497,700 customer connections in 100 California communities; approximately 6,500 water and wastewater customer connections on the islands of Maui, Oahu, and Hawaii; approximately 38,000 customer connections in the Tacoma, Olympia, Graham, Spanaway, Puyallup, Rainier, Yelm, and Gig Harbor areas; and approximately 11,400 water and wastewater customer connections in Rio Communities, Rio Del Oro, Meadow Lake, Indian Hills, Squaw Valley, Elephant Butte, Morningstar, Sandia Knolls, Juan Tomas, and Cypress Gardens systems. The company also engages in the provision of non-regulated water-related services, including operating of municipally owned water systems, privately owned water, and recycled water distribution systems; water system operation, meter reading, and billing services to private companies and municipalities; leasing of communication antenna sites on its properties; and billing of optional third-party insurance programs to its residential customers. In addition, it provides lab, wastewater collection, and treatment services. California Water Service Group was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.