California Water Service Group $CWT Stake Increased by Vontobel Holding Ltd.

Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its stake in California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) by 16.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,968 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,165 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. owned about 0.05% of California Water Service Group worth $1,363,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of California Water Service Group by 130.1% in the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,397 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 790 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of California Water Service Group by 204.2% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 315,685 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,298,000 after buying an additional 211,914 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its stake in shares of California Water Service Group by 7.6% in the second quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 35,453 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,611,000 after buying an additional 2,499 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of California Water Service Group in the first quarter worth $5,461,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of California Water Service Group by 75.4% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 114,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,572,000 after buying an additional 49,420 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.78% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CWT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of California Water Service Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of California Water Service Group from $59.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of California Water Service Group in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $56.00.

California Water Service Group Stock Performance

Shares of CWT opened at $47.29 on Monday. California Water Service Group has a 1 year low of $41.64 and a 1 year high of $54.75. The company has a market cap of $2.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a current ratio of 0.53. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $46.24 and a 200-day moving average of $46.92.

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.25. California Water Service Group had a net margin of 13.71% and a return on equity of 8.28%. The company had revenue of $264.95 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.20 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.70 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that California Water Service Group will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

California Water Service Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 22nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 11th were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 11th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. California Water Service Group’s payout ratio is 52.40%.

California Water Service Group Company Profile

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.