SJW Group (NYSE:SJW) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of SJW Group (NYSE:SJW) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the four analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $66.00.

SJW has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded SJW Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on SJW Group from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com cut SJW Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th.

SJW Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SJW opened at $54.09 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 0.58 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $56.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.72. SJW Group has a 1-year low of $51.37 and a 1-year high of $79.41. The company has a market cap of $1.73 billion, a PE ratio of 20.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.58.

SJW Group (NYSE:SJW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The utilities provider reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.60 by ($0.01). SJW Group had a return on equity of 7.10% and a net margin of 12.68%. The company had revenue of $171.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.23 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.09 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that SJW Group will post 2.75 EPS for the current year.

SJW Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 5th were given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 2nd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.96%. This is a boost from SJW Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. SJW Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.93%.

Institutional Trading of SJW Group

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in SJW. Nuance Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of SJW Group by 32.6% during the third quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 1,137,593 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $68,381,000 after acquiring an additional 279,870 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of SJW Group during the fourth quarter valued at $13,659,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of SJW Group by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,465,745 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $161,136,000 after acquiring an additional 78,289 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of SJW Group by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 474,598 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,015,000 after acquiring an additional 66,238 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of SJW Group by 296.7% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 85,120 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,117,000 after acquiring an additional 63,661 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.29% of the company’s stock.

About SJW Group

SJW Group, through its subsidiaries, provides water utility and other related services in the United States. It operates in Water Utility Services and Real Estate Services segments. The company engages in the production, purchase, storage, purification, distribution, wholesale, and retail sale of water and wastewater services; and supplies groundwater from wells, surface water from watershed run-off and diversion, reclaimed water, and imported water purchased from the Santa Clara Valley Water District.