American States Water to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.47 (NYSE:AWR)

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 30th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.4655 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $1.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.26%.

American States Water has raised its dividend by an average of 8.9% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 71 years. American States Water has a payout ratio of 55.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect American States Water to earn $3.35 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 55.5%.

American States Water Stock Performance

NYSE AWR opened at $82.49 on Friday. American States Water has a fifty-two week low of $66.03 and a fifty-two week high of $87.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.49. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $82.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $78.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.70.

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $155.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $138.00 million. American States Water had a net margin of 18.85% and a return on equity of 13.45%. American States Water’s quarterly revenue was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.83 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that American States Water will post 3.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on AWR shares. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of American States Water from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $80.00 to $87.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. StockNews.com lowered American States Water from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Anne M. Holloway sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.89, for a total value of $40,445.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 38,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,115,801.91. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

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.