H2O America (NASDAQ:HTO) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

H2O America (NASDAQ:HTO) saw a significant drop in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totaling 2,012,314 shares, a drop of 61.0% from the September 15th total of 5,158,832 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 519,102 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.9 days. Approximately 4.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of H2O America

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HTO. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of H2O America during the third quarter worth $313,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of H2O America by 561.7% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 6,643 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $409,000 after purchasing an additional 5,639 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new position in H2O America in the second quarter valued at $730,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC acquired a new position in H2O America in the second quarter valued at $103,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its stake in H2O America by 61.0% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 170,129 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,339,000 after purchasing an additional 64,487 shares during the last quarter. 84.29% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on HTO. Wall Street Zen upgraded H2O America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 16th. Zacks Research raised H2O America from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of H2O America in a report on Monday, August 3rd. BTIG Research set a $70.00 target price on H2O America in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on H2O America from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, H2O America presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $65.50.

H2O America Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:HTO traded down $1.19 on Wednesday, hitting $57.30. The company had a trading volume of 620,902 shares, compared to its average volume of 486,971. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. H2O America has a 52-week low of $43.75 and a 52-week high of $67.09. The business has a 50 day moving average of $62.28 and a 200 day moving average of $60.36. The company has a market cap of $2.40 billion, a PE ratio of 20.25, a PEG ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 0.33.

H2O America (NASDAQ:HTO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $210.47 million for the quarter. H2O America had a return on equity of 6.65% and a net margin of 12.91%. H2O America has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.080-3.180 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that H2O America will post 2.80 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

H2O America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 10th were given a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 10th. H2O America’s payout ratio is currently 62.19%.

About H2O America