BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. Increases Stock Position in American States Water (NYSE:AWR)

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in American States Water (NYSE:AWR) by 29.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 158,292 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 36,122 shares during the quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. owned approximately 0.42% of American States Water worth $13,184,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in American States Water by 18.1% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 126,815 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,203,000 after acquiring an additional 19,391 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of American States Water in the 1st quarter worth approximately $533,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of American States Water by 63.2% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 27,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,966,000 after buying an additional 10,538 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd grew its stake in shares of American States Water by 104.3% in the 1st quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 19,366 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,399,000 after buying an additional 9,889 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in American States Water by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,760,524 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $343,900,000 after buying an additional 132,674 shares during the last quarter. 75.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AWR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com cut American States Water from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of American States Water from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $87.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st.

American States Water Stock Performance

AWR stock opened at $85.03 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $79.69. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. American States Water has a 12-month low of $66.03 and a 12-month high of $87.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.19 billion, a PE ratio of 28.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.42 and a beta of 0.49.

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

American States Water Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a $0.4655 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $1.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.19%. American States Water’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.63%.

American States Water 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.