American States Water (NYSE:AWR) Stock Holdings Increased by Magellan Asset Management Ltd

Magellan Asset Management Ltd grew its position in shares of American States Water (NYSE:AWR) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 27,954 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 370 shares during the period. Magellan Asset Management Ltd owned about 0.07% of American States Water worth $2,173,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AWR. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of American States Water by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,831,526 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $375,506,000 after purchasing an additional 33,371 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its position in American States Water by 30.9% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 1,118,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $86,935,000 after purchasing an additional 264,257 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of American States Water by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 855,055 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $66,471,000 after buying an additional 4,177 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in American States Water in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $45,254,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in American States Water by 26.8% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 484,470 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,653,000 after acquiring an additional 102,489 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AWR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America lowered shares of American States Water from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $85.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of American States Water from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut American States Water from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $77.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th.

Insider Buying and Selling at American States Water

In related news, Director Diana M. Bonta sold 969 shares of American States Water stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.00, for a total value of $74,613.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,931 shares in the company, valued at $1,226,687. The trade was a 5.73 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.82% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

American States Water Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of AWR stock opened at $77.84 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $75.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $79.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.56, a P/E/G ratio of 12.92 and a beta of 0.47. American States Water has a fifty-two week low of $66.03 and a fifty-two week high of $87.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88.

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The utilities provider reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.05. American States Water had a net margin of 20.03% and a return on equity of 13.63%. The company had revenue of $143.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $160.17 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that American States Water will post 3.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American States Water Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a $0.4655 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $1.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.39%. American States Water’s dividend payout ratio is currently 58.68%.

American States Water Profile

American States Water Company, through its subsidiaries, provides water and electric services to residential, commercial, industrial, and other customers in the United States. It operates through three segments: Water, Electric, and Contracted Services. The company purchases, produces, distributes, and sells water, as well as distributes electricity.