CWT vs. AWR, SJW, MSEX, YORW, CWCO, ARTNA, CDZI, AWK, WTRG, and SBS
Should you be buying California Water Service Group stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of California Water Service Group include American States Water (AWR), SJW Group (SJW), Middlesex Water (MSEX), York Water (YORW), Consolidated Water (CWCO), Artesian Resources (ARTNA), Cadiz (CDZI), American Water Works (AWK), Essential Utilities (WTRG), and Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP (SBS). These companies are all part of the "water supply" industry.
American States Water (NYSE:AWR) and California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, community ranking, valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.
American States Water pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. California Water Service Group pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. American States Water pays out 56.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. California Water Service Group pays out 44.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. American States Water has raised its dividend for 70 consecutive years and California Water Service Group has raised its dividend for 58 consecutive years. American States Water is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
American States Water has higher earnings, but lower revenue than California Water Service Group. California Water Service Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American States Water, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
American States Water currently has a consensus target price of $80.00, suggesting a potential upside of 8.71%. California Water Service Group has a consensus target price of $54.25, suggesting a potential upside of 8.74%. Given American States Water's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe California Water Service Group is more favorable than American States Water.
75.2% of American States Water shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.8% of California Water Service Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of American States Water shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of California Water Service Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
American States Water has a beta of 0.43, suggesting that its stock price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, California Water Service Group has a beta of 0.47, suggesting that its stock price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, American States Water had 2 more articles in the media than California Water Service Group. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for American States Water and 4 mentions for California Water Service Group. California Water Service Group's average media sentiment score of 0.54 beat American States Water's score of 0.49 indicating that American States Water is being referred to more favorably in the media.
California Water Service Group received 50 more outperform votes than American States Water when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 53.79% of users gave California Water Service Group an outperform vote while only 51.83% of users gave American States Water an outperform vote.
American States Water has a net margin of 19.95% compared to American States Water's net margin of 15.42%. California Water Service Group's return on equity of 13.65% beat American States Water's return on equity.
Summary
American States Water beats California Water Service Group on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding CWT and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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