California Water Service Group (CWT) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

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.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $45.63 to $46.60
• 50-Day Range: $45.92 to $54.63
• 52-Week Range: $43.50 to $56.25
• Volume: 1.45 million shs
• Average Volume: 328,056 shs
• Market Capitalization: $2.74 billion
• P/E Ratio: 13.29
• Dividend Yield: 2.43%
• Price Target: $54.50
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy

California Water Service Group Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

California Water Service Group scored higher than 91% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 17th out of 91 stocks in the utilities sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 2.3 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Moderate Buy

Consensus Rating

California Water Service Group has received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.50, and is based on 2 buy ratings, 2 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

California Water Service Group has only been the subject of 1 research reports in the past 90 days.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 1.3 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: -28.57%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for California Water Service Group are expected to decrease by -28.57% in the coming year, from $3.29 to $2.35 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of California Water Service Group is 13.29, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 128.72.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of California Water Service Group is 13.29, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Utilities sector average P/E ratio of about 94.95.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

California Water Service Group has a P/B Ratio of 1.86. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 4.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

1.07% of the outstanding shares of California Water Service Group have been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

California Water Service Group has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.1, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in California Water Service Group has recently decreased by 1.42%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving.

Dividend

• Score: 4.2 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Strong

Dividend Yield

California Water Service Group pays a meaningful dividend of 2.34%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

California Water Service Group has been increasing its dividend for 58 years.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of California Water Service Group is 32.37%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, California Water Service Group will have a dividend payout ratio of 47.66% next year. This indicates that California Water Service Group will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

Sustainability and ESG

• Score: 4.0 / 5
• Environmental Score: 0.43

Percentage of Shares Shorted

1.07% of the outstanding shares of California Water Service Group have been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

California Water Service Group has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.1, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in California Water Service Group has recently decreased by 1.42%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving.

News and Social Media

• Score: 1.9 / 5
• News Sentiment: 0.43

News Sentiment

California Water Service Group has a news sentiment score of 0.43. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a lower news sentiment than the 0.68 average news sentiment score of Utilities companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 8 news articles for California Water Service Group this week, compared to 5 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

Only 1 people have searched for CWT on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -75% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 2.5 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, California Water Service Group insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $50,728.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

Only 0.73% of the stock of California Water Service Group is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

82.78% of the stock of California Water Service Group is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

CWT Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

How have CWT shares performed this year?

California Water Service Group's stock was trading at $51.87 at the beginning of 2024. Since then, CWT shares have decreased by 11.3% and is now trading at $46.00.
View the best growth stocks for 2024 here.

How were California Water Service Group's earnings last quarter?

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October, 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.02. California Water Service Group's revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis.

Who are California Water Service Group's major shareholders?

California Water Service Group's top institutional shareholders include State Street Corp (5.14%), Nuance Investments LLC (2.75%), Geode Capital Management LLC (2.25%) and Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. (1.20%). Insiders that own company stock include Thomas M Krummel, Michael B Luu, Lester A Snow, David B Healey, Robert J Kuta and Michelle R Mortensen.
View institutional ownership trends.

How do I buy shares of California Water Service Group?

Shares of CWT stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.
Compare Top Brokerages Here.

What other stocks do shareholders of California Water Service Group own?

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that California Water Service Group investors own include Humana (HUM), American Water Works (AWK), Waste Connections (WCN), Voyager Therapeutics (VYGR), TotalEnergies (TTE), The RMR Group (RMR) and Southern First Bancshares (SFST).

Company Calendar

• Last Earnings: 10/31/2024
• Ex-Dividend for 11/22 Dividend: 11/12/2024
• Dividend Payable: 11/22/2024
• Today: 12/21/2024
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2024

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Utilities
• Industry: Water supply
• Sub-Industry: Water Utilities
• Current Symbol: NYSE:CWT
• CUSIP: 13078810
• CIK: 1035201
• Web: www.calwatergroup.com
• Phone: (408) 367-8200
• Fax: 831-427-9185
• Employees: 1,266
• Year Founded: 1926

Price Target and Rating

• Average Stock Price Target: $54.50
• High Stock Price Target: $57.00
• Low Stock Price Target: $49.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +18.5%
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.50
• Research Coverage: 4 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Most Recent Fiscal Year): $3.46
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 13.29
• Forward P/E Ratio: 13.98
• P/E Growth: N/A
• Net Income: $51.91 million
• Net Margins: 19.56%
• Pretax Margin: 19.51%
• Return on Equity: 13.24%
• Return on Assets: 4.18%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 0.64
• Current Ratio: 0.64
• Quick Ratio: 0.60

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $1.03 billion
• Price / Sales: 2.66
• Cash Flow: $2.86 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 16.08
• Book Value: $24.78 per share
• Price / Book: 1.86

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 59,473,000
• Free Float: 59,039,000
• Market Cap: $2.74 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.50