American States Water (NYSE:AWR) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.05 EPS

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) released its earnings results on Wednesday. The utilities provider reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.05, Zacks reports. American States Water had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 13.53%.

American States Water Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AWR traded down $0.47 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $74.48. 173,972 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 188,568. The company has a market cap of $2.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.08, a PEG ratio of 12.68 and a beta of 0.53. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $75.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $80.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.69. American States Water has a twelve month low of $66.03 and a twelve month high of $87.50.

American States Water Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.4655 per share. This represents a $1.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.50%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. American States Water’s dividend payout ratio is 62.63%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on AWR shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of American States Water from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Bank of America cut shares of American States Water from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $71.00 in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of American States Water from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th.

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.