American States Water (NYSE:AWR) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Thursday.

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of American States Water from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $80.00 to $87.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st.

American States Water Stock Performance

American States Water stock opened at $83.14 on Thursday. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $66.03 and a fifty-two week high of $85.71. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $80.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $75.06. The company has a market capitalization of $3.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.17, a PEG ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 0.49.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Anne M. Holloway sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.89, for a total transaction of $40,445.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 38,519 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,115,801.91. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.82% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of American States Water

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AWR. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of American States Water during the 2nd quarter worth about $80,000. Creative Planning lifted its position in American States Water by 23.4% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 10,904 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $791,000 after buying an additional 2,069 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. purchased a new stake in American States Water during the second quarter worth approximately $2,049,000. Algert Global LLC increased its position in shares of American States Water by 15.0% in the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 28,740 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,086,000 after acquiring an additional 3,748 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of American States Water by 8.3% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 5,213 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $378,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. 75.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.