American States Water (NYSE:AWR) Rating Lowered to Sell at StockNews.com

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) was downgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday.

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of American States Water from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $80.00 to $87.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st.

American States Water Price Performance

American States Water stock traded down $0.02 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $85.37. 249,339 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 220,580. The firm has a market cap of $3.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.74, a P/E/G ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $84.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $79.82. American States Water has a 1-year low of $66.03 and a 1-year high of $87.50.

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.98 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $161.78 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.00 million. American States Water had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 13.53%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.85 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that American States Water will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American States Water by 1.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 850,878 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,884,000 after buying an additional 13,024 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of American States Water by 0.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 845,936 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $61,389,000 after buying an additional 6,372 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of American States Water by 5.6% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 450,788 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,714,000 after buying an additional 24,042 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American States Water by 205.5% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 440,598 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,974,000 after buying an additional 296,361 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of American States Water by 3.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 418,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,873,000 after buying an additional 13,276 shares during the period. 75.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.