American States Water (NYSE:AWR) Plans $0.47 Quarterly Dividend

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of 0.4655 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $1.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.55%.

American States Water has increased its dividend by an average of 8.6% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 23 consecutive years. American States Water has a dividend payout ratio of 52.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect American States Water to earn $3.34 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.86 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 55.7%.

American States Water Stock Performance

AWR stock traded down $0.34 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $72.98. 4,606 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 180,090. American States Water has a twelve month low of $66.03 and a twelve month high of $87.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 0.53. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $77.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $81.09.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on AWR shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut American States Water from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $84.00 to $77.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com cut American States Water from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of American States Water from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $71.00 in a research note on Monday.

About American States Water

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.