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

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.4655 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $1.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.53%.

American States Water has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.6% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 23 years. American States Water has a dividend payout ratio of 52.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 NYSE:AWR opened at $73.51 on Friday. American States Water has a 12 month low of $66.03 and a 12 month high of $87.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.75, a P/E/G ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 0.53. 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 company’s fifty day moving average price is $77.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $81.04.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

About American States Water

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.