JPMorgan Chase & Co. Grows Position in California Water Service Group $CWT

JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) by 14.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 277,245 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 35,627 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in California Water Service Group were worth $12,723,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CWT. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in California Water Service Group by 3,318.8% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 547 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 531 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of California Water Service Group by 109.9% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 697 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in California Water Service Group by 291.1% in the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 880 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 655 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new position in shares of California Water Service Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $70,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in California Water Service Group by 33.8% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,026 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $93,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.78% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of California Water Service Group in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, California Water Service Group currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $55.00.

California Water Service Group Stock Performance

California Water Service Group stock opened at $45.79 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $44.84 and a 200-day moving average of $45.51. The stock has a market cap of $2.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.64. California Water Service Group has a 52 week low of $41.29 and a 52 week high of $51.63.

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $265.61 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $239.10 million. California Water Service Group had a net margin of 12.82% and a return on equity of 7.67%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that California Water Service Group will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

California Water Service Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 20th. Investors of record on Monday, February 9th were given a dividend of $0.335 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 9th. This represents a $1.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. This is an increase from California Water Service Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. California Water Service Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 62.33%.

California Water Service Group 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.