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

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,RTT News reports. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.55%.

American States Water has raised its dividend by an average of 8.6% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 23 consecutive years. American States Water has a dividend payout ratio of 52.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Price Performance

Shares of American States Water stock traded down $0.34 during trading on Thursday, reaching $72.98. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,606 shares, compared to its average volume of 180,090. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $77.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $81.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.57, a price-to-earnings-growth 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. American States Water has a one year low of $66.03 and a one year high of $87.50.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com downgraded American States Water from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Bank of America lowered American States Water from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $85.00 to $71.00 in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered American States Water from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th.

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.