California Water Service Group (CWT) To Go Ex-Dividend on August 10th

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 10th will be given a dividend of 0.335 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, August 21st. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 10th.

California Water Service Group has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 59 consecutive years. California Water Service Group has a payout ratio of 52.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Trading Up 2.5%

Shares of NYSE:CWT opened at $50.65 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $48.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $46.15. California Water Service Group has a 1 year low of $41.29 and a 1 year high of $53.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company has a market capitalization of $3.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.50.

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $308.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $283.50 million. California Water Service Group had a return on equity of 7.74% and a net margin of 12.63%.The company’s revenue was up 16.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.71 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that California Water Service Group will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CWT shares. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of California Water Service Group from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird set a $54.00 target price on shares of California Water Service Group in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of California Water Service Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, July 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $54.00.

About California Water Service Group

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.