New Age Alpha Advisors LLC Trims Holdings in California Water Service Group $CWT

New Age Alpha Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) by 95.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,406 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 95,071 shares during the period. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC’s holdings in California Water Service Group were worth $191,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CWT. Amundi increased its stake in California Water Service Group by 19.4% during the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 2,276,599 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $104,318,000 after buying an additional 369,430 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in California Water Service Group by 5,365.1% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 368,074 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,891,000 after buying an additional 361,339 shares during the period. Jane Street Group LLC purchased a new stake in California Water Service Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $5,979,000. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. purchased a new stake in California Water Service Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,548,000. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its stake in California Water Service Group by 40.3% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 240,112 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,019,000 after buying an additional 68,923 shares during the period. 82.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at California Water Service Group

In other California Water Service Group news, Director Thomas M. Krummel sold 3,700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.30, for a total transaction of $160,210.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 23,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,030,756.50. This trade represents a 13.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Michael B. Luu sold 740 shares of California Water Service Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.53, for a total value of $32,952.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 23,655 shares in the company, valued at $1,053,357.15. This trade represents a 3.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 9,432 shares of company stock valued at $412,810. Corporate insiders own 0.78% of the company’s stock.

California Water Service Group Trading Up 3.0%

NYSE CWT opened at $45.12 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $44.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $44.69. The company has a market capitalization of $2.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 0.51. California Water Service Group has a 12 month low of $41.29 and a 12 month high of $50.44.

California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.18). The company had revenue of $214.57 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $210.27 million. California Water Service Group had a net margin of 11.77% and a return on equity of 7.06%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.22 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that California Water Service Group will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

California Water Service Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 11th were given a $0.335 dividend. This represents a $1.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 11th. California Water Service Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CWT. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of California Water Service Group from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird set a $54.00 target price on shares of California Water Service Group in a research note on Friday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, California Water Service Group currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.50.

California Water Service Group Company Profile

California Water Service Group (NYSE: CWT) is a publicly traded holding company that provides regulated water utility services through its subsidiaries. The company delivers safe, reliable drinking water and wastewater management to residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers across California, Hawaii and New Mexico. Its principal operating units include California Water Service, New Mexico Water Service and Hawaii Water Service, each responsible for end‐to‐end water supply operations—from source development and treatment to distribution and customer service.

Founded in 1926 as the California Water Service Company, the group has grown to become one of the largest investor‐owned water utilities in the United States by customer count.