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

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) announced 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.53%.

American States Water has raised its dividend by an average of 8.6% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 23 years. American States Water has a payout ratio of 52.8% meaning 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 Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of AWR stock opened at $73.51 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.75, a PEG ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $77.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $81.04. American States Water has a twelve month low of $66.03 and a twelve month 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 firm had revenue of $161.78 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $161.00 million. American States Water had a return on equity of 13.53% and a net margin of 19.26%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.85 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that American States Water will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AWR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of American States Water from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $84.00 to $77.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com lowered American States Water from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Bank of America lowered 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 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.