California Water Service Group (CWT) vs. Its Peers Financial Review

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) is one of 38 publicly-traded companies in the “Water Utilities” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare California Water Service Group to similar companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and risk.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares California Water Service Group and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
California Water Service Group	$1.00 billion	$128.21 million	22.77
California Water Service Group Competitors	$4.33 billion	$270.20 million	14.84

California Water Service Group’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than California Water Service Group. California Water Service Group is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Volatility and Risk

California Water Service Group has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, California Water Service Group’s peers have a beta of 0.77, meaning that their average share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for California Water Service Group and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
California Water Service Group	0	1	1	0	2.50
California Water Service Group Competitors	408	1236	1028	32	2.25

California Water Service Group currently has a consensus price target of $53.50, indicating a potential upside of 4.88%. As a group, “Water Utilities” companies have a potential upside of 92.92%. Given California Water Service Group’s peers higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe California Water Service Group has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares California Water Service Group and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
California Water Service Group	12.78%	7.75%	2.34%
California Water Service Group Competitors	0.35%	-0.86%	1.79%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

82.8% of California Water Service Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.7% of shares of all “Water Utilities” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of California Water Service Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.7% of shares of all “Water Utilities” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

California Water Service Group pays an annual dividend of $1.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. California Water Service Group pays out 59.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Water Utilities” companies pay a dividend yield of 4.0% and pay out 83.7% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. California Water Service Group has raised its dividend for 59 consecutive years.

Summary

California Water Service Group beats its peers on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

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. It offers its services to approximately 497,700 customer connections in 100 California communities; approximately 6,500 water and wastewater customer connections on the islands of Maui, Oahu, and Hawaii; approximately 38,000 customer connections in the Tacoma, Olympia, Graham, Spanaway, Puyallup, Rainier, Yelm, and Gig Harbor areas; and approximately 11,400 water and wastewater customer connections in Rio Communities, Rio Del Oro, Meadow Lake, Indian Hills, Squaw Valley, Elephant Butte, Morningstar, Sandia Knolls, Juan Tomas, and Cypress Gardens systems. The company also engages in the provision of non-regulated water-related services, including operating of municipally owned water systems, privately owned water, and recycled water distribution systems; water system operation, meter reading, and billing services to private companies and municipalities; leasing of communication antenna sites on its properties; and billing of optional third-party insurance programs to its residential customers. In addition, it provides lab, wastewater collection, and treatment services. California Water Service Group was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.