Cullen Capital Management LLC Purchases New Shares in California Water Service Group $CWT

Cullen Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 13,060 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $635,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Danske Bank A S bought a new position in shares of California Water Service Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in 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 valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in California Water Service Group by 228.2% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 676 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 470 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of California Water Service Group during the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in shares of California Water Service Group by 67.9% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 301 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.78% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on CWT. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of California Water Service Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 18th. Weiss Ratings raised California Water Service Group from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Robert W. Baird set a $54.00 target price on California Water Service Group in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Seaport Research Partners reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $53.00 price target on shares of California Water Service Group in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, California Water Service Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $54.00.

California Water Service Group Trading Down 0.5%

NYSE:CWT opened at $50.58 on Wednesday. California Water Service Group has a 1 year low of $41.29 and a 1 year high of $53.82. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $49.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $46.61. 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 cap of $3.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.50.

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.13. California Water Service Group had a return on equity of 7.74% and a net margin of 12.63%.The company had revenue of $308.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $283.50 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that California Water Service Group will post 2.57 EPS for the current year.

California Water Service Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 21st. Investors of record on Monday, August 10th were paid a dividend of $0.335 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 10th. This represents a $1.34 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. California Water Service Group’s payout ratio is currently 60.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Thomas M. Krummel sold 3,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.37, for a total transaction of $186,369.00. Following the sale, the director owned 20,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,012,638.48. This represents a 15.54% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.78% 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.