California Water Service Group Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.34 (NYSE:CWT)

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 29th. Investors of record on Monday, May 11th will be paid a dividend of 0.335 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, May 22nd. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 11th.

California Water Service Group has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 59 years. California Water Service Group has a payout ratio of 52.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect California Water Service Group to earn $2.73 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.34 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 49.1%.

California Water Service Group Price Performance

NYSE CWT opened at $44.68 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.67 billion, a PE ratio of 20.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $45.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $45.30. California Water Service Group has a 12-month low of $41.29 and a 12-month high of $51.15.

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.25 by ($0.18). The business had revenue of $214.57 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $210.27 million. California Water Service Group had a return on equity of 7.67% and a net margin of 12.82%.The business’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.22 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that California Water Service Group will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings cut shares of California Water Service Group from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.00.

California Water Service Group Company Profile

California Water Service Group (NYSE: CWT) is a publicly traded holding company that provides regulated water utility services through its subsidiaries. The company delivers safe, reliable drinking water and wastewater management to residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers across California, Hawaii and New Mexico. Its principal operating units include California Water Service, New Mexico Water Service and Hawaii Water Service, each responsible for end?to?end water supply operations—from source development and treatment to distribution and customer service.

Founded in 1926 as the California Water Service Company, the group has grown to become one of the largest investor?owned water utilities in the United States by customer count.