American States Water (AWR) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 18th

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 Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th.

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

Shares of AWR stock opened at $72.97 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $76.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $81.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.59 and a beta of 0.53. American States Water has a 12-month low of $66.03 and a 12-month high of $87.50.

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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). The company had revenue of $161.78 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $161.00 million. American States Water had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 13.53%. American States Water’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.85 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that American States Water will post 3.01 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AWR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America cut shares of American States Water from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $71.00 in a report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com cut American States Water from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded American States Water from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $77.00 in a research note 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.