American States Water (NYSE:AWR) Position Raised by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in American States Water (NYSE:AWR) by 26.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 484,470 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 102,489 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in American States Water were worth $37,653,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in shares of American States Water by 15.0% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,262 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $91,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of American States Water by 367.3% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 393 shares in the last quarter. Asset Planning Inc bought a new stake in shares of American States Water during the fourth quarter valued at about $113,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of American States Water by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 11,077 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $861,000 after purchasing an additional 831 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of American States Water by 332.0% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 101,222 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,753,000 after purchasing an additional 77,792 shares in the last quarter. 75.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AWR. StockNews.com cut shares of American States Water from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of American States Water from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of American States Water from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Monday, February 3rd.

American States Water Price Performance

Shares of American States Water stock opened at $75.47 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $75.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $80.47. The stock has a market cap of $2.83 billion, a PE ratio of 23.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.77 and a beta of 0.53. American States Water has a 52 week low of $66.03 and a 52 week high of $87.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86.

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) last released its earnings results 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 return on equity of 13.96% and a net margin of 20.03%. The company had revenue of $143.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $160.17 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that American States Water will post 3.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American States Water Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.4655 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $1.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.47%. American States Water’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.68%.

American States Water Company 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.