California Water Service Group (CWT) Competitors

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) and California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and media sentiment.

Do insiders and institutionals believe in AWR or CWT?

75.2% of American States Water shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.8% of California Water Service Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of American States Water shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% 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 stock is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts prefer AWR or CWT?

American States Water presently has a consensus price target of $87.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.29%. California Water Service Group has a consensus price target of $53.67, suggesting a potential upside of 5.29%. Given California Water Service Group's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe California Water Service Group is more favorable than American States Water.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American States Water	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
California Water Service Group	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Does the MarketBeat Community favor AWR or CWT?

California Water Service Group received 50 more outperform votes than American States Water when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 53.68% of users gave California Water Service Group an outperform vote while only 51.01% of users gave American States Water an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
American States Water	Outperform Votes 227 51.01%	Underperform Votes 218 48.99%
California Water Service Group	Outperform Votes 277 53.68%	Underperform Votes 239 46.32%

Is AWR or CWT more profitable?

California Water Service Group has a net margin of 19.56% compared to American States Water's net margin of 19.26%. American States Water's return on equity of 13.53% beat California Water Service Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American States Water	19.26%	13.53%	4.78%
California Water Service Group	19.56%	13.24%	4.18%

Which has better earnings and valuation, AWR or CWT?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American States Water	$595.70M	5.35	$124.92M	$2.97	28.64
California Water Service Group	$794.63M	3.81	$51.91M	$3.46	14.73

Which has more volatility & risk, AWR or CWT?

American States Water has a beta of 0.49, meaning that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, California Water Service Group has a beta of 0.49, meaning that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is AWR or CWT a better dividend stock?

American States Water pays an annual dividend of $1.86 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. California Water Service Group pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. American States Water pays out 62.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. California Water Service Group pays out 32.4% 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. American States Water has raised its dividend for 71 consecutive years and California Water Service Group has raised its dividend for 58 consecutive years. California Water Service Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the media prefer AWR or CWT?

In the previous week, American States Water had 1 more articles in the media than California Water Service Group. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for American States Water and 4 mentions for California Water Service Group. California Water Service Group's average media sentiment score of 1.52 beat American States Water's score of 1.02 indicating that California Water Service Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
American States Water	2 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
California Water Service Group	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Summary

California Water Service Group beats American States Water on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.