Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Acquires New Stake in California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new stake in California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 8,609 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $467,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in California Water Service Group by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,198,981 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $334,609,000 after purchasing an additional 232,344 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in California Water Service Group by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,288,740 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $62,491,000 after purchasing an additional 25,711 shares during the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its stake in California Water Service Group by 4,565.4% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 1,053,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $51,093,000 after purchasing an additional 1,031,103 shares during the last quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. raised its stake in California Water Service Group by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 693,025 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,605,000 after purchasing an additional 19,118 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in California Water Service Group by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 572,351 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,753,000 after purchasing an additional 10,819 shares during the last quarter. 82.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Thomas M. Krummel sold 555 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.09, for a total transaction of $30,574.95. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 21,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,209,280.59. This trade represents a 2.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company raised California Water Service Group from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $50.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, California Water Service Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.67.

California Water Service Group Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of CWT opened at $50.97 on Friday. California Water Service Group has a 52-week low of $43.50 and a 52-week high of $56.25. The company has a market capitalization of $3.03 billion, a PE ratio of 14.73 and a beta of 0.49. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $52.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $51.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $299.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $289.55 million. California Water Service Group had a return on equity of 13.24% and a net margin of 19.56%. The firm’s revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that California Water Service Group will post 3.31 EPS for the current year.

California Water Service Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. California Water Service Group’s payout ratio is 32.37%.

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.