California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) Raised to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on CWT. Robert W. Baird set a $54.00 price objective on California Water Service Group in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings upgraded California Water Service Group from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday, June 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.50.

California Water Service Group Price Performance

NYSE CWT opened at $51.84 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.92, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $46.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $45.46. California Water Service Group has a 1 year low of $41.29 and a 1 year high of $52.28.

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.18). The firm had revenue of $214.57 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $210.27 million. California Water Service Group had a return on equity of 7.06% and a net margin of 11.77%.The business’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.22 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that California Water Service Group will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at California Water Service Group

In other California Water Service Group news, Director Thomas M. Krummel sold 3,700 shares of California Water Service Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.30, for a total transaction of $160,210.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 23,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,030,756.50. This trade represents a 13.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Lester A. Snow sold 1,100 shares of California Water Service Group stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.00, for a total value of $48,400.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $805,904. The trade was a 5.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.78% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of California Water Service Group

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in California Water Service Group by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,346,457 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $318,322,000 after acquiring an additional 34,155 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings in California Water Service Group by 26.7% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 3,470,997 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $157,421,000 after acquiring an additional 732,004 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in California Water Service Group by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,337,205 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $144,602,000 after purchasing an additional 36,296 shares in the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC boosted its position in California Water Service Group by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 1,825,390 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $79,094,000 after purchasing an additional 60,931 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of California Water Service Group by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,420,950 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $61,579,000 after purchasing an additional 4,613 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.78% of the company’s stock.

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.