CWT vs. CWCO, GWRS, MSEX, YORW, AWK, AWR, WTRG, HTO, ARTNA, and CDZI
Should you be buying California Water Service Group stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of California Water Service Group include Consolidated Water (CWCO), Global Water Resources (GWRS), Middlesex Water (MSEX), York Water (YORW), American Water Works (AWK), American States Water (AWR), Essential Utilities (WTRG), H2O America (HTO), Artesian Resources (ARTNA), and Cadiz (CDZI).
California Water Service Group vs. Its Competitors
Consolidated Water (NASDAQ:CWCO) and California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) are both utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, dividends, media sentiment and institutional ownership.
Consolidated Water pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. California Water Service Group pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Consolidated Water pays out 34.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. California Water Service Group pays out 52.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Consolidated Water has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and California Water Service Group has increased its dividend for 59 consecutive years. California Water Service Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Consolidated Water has a beta of 0.53, meaning that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, California Water Service Group has a beta of 0.66, meaning that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.
California Water Service Group has a consensus price target of $56.00, suggesting a potential upside of 19.60%. Given California Water Service Group's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe California Water Service Group is more favorable than Consolidated Water.
Consolidated Water has a net margin of 20.75% compared to California Water Service Group's net margin of 13.71%. California Water Service Group's return on equity of 8.28% beat Consolidated Water's return on equity.
55.2% of Consolidated Water shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.8% of California Water Service Group shares are held by institutional investors. 6.3% of Consolidated Water shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of California Water Service Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
California Water Service Group has higher revenue and earnings than Consolidated Water. Consolidated Water 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.
In the previous week, California Water Service Group had 3 more articles in the media than Consolidated Water. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for California Water Service Group and 6 mentions for Consolidated Water. California Water Service Group's average media sentiment score of 0.82 beat Consolidated Water's score of 0.59 indicating that California Water Service Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
California Water Service Group beats Consolidated Water on 15 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding CWT and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
California Water Service Group Competitors List
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This page (NYSE:CWT) was last updated on 8/9/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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