California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $1.00 EPS

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The utilities provider reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $1.00, Briefing.com reports. California Water Service Group had a net margin of 6.53% and a return on equity of 3.75%. The firm had revenue of $270.75 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $183.85 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.40) earnings per share. California Water Service Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 106.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

California Water Service Group Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE CWT traded down $0.12 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $47.93. The company had a trading volume of 398,474 shares, compared to its average volume of 365,403. The company has a market capitalization of $2.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.21 and a beta of 0.49. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $46.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $48.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.69. California Water Service Group has a 12-month low of $43.50 and a 12-month high of $58.30.

California Water Service Group Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Investors of record on Monday, May 6th will be given a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.34%. California Water Service Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 125.84%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CWT has been the subject of several research reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of California Water Service Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. TheStreet downgraded shares of California Water Service Group from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group upgraded shares of California Water Service Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $49.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of California Water Service Group to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $54.25.

About California Water Service Group

California Water Service Group, through its subsidiaries, provides water utility and other related services in California, Washington, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Texas. The company is involved in the production, purchase, storage, treatment, testing, distribution, and sale of water for domestic, industrial, public, and irrigation uses, as well as for fire protection services.