WTR vs. CWT, AWR, AWK, SBS, WTRG, PNW, BEP, OGE, SWX, and MDU
Should you be buying Aqua America stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Aqua America include California Water Service Group (CWT), American States Water (AWR), American Water Works (AWK), Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP (SBS), Essential Utilities (WTRG), Pinnacle West Capital (PNW), Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP), OGE Energy (OGE), Southwest Gas (SWX), and MDU Resources Group (MDU). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) and Aqua America (NYSE:WTR) are both mid-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, media sentiment, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.
Aqua America has higher revenue and earnings than California Water Service Group. California Water Service Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Aqua America, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Aqua America received 83 more outperform votes than California Water Service Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.81% of users gave Aqua America an outperform vote while only 53.79% of users gave California Water Service Group an outperform vote.
California Water Service Group pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Aqua America pays an annual dividend of $0.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. California Water Service Group pays out 44.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Aqua America pays out 66.7% 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. California Water Service Group has raised its dividend for 58 consecutive years.
In the previous week, California Water Service Group had 8 more articles in the media than Aqua America. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for California Water Service Group and 1 mentions for Aqua America. Aqua America's average media sentiment score of 0.53 beat California Water Service Group's score of 0.00 indicating that California Water Service Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.
82.8% of California Water Service Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.5% of Aqua America shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of California Water Service Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Aqua America shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Aqua America has a net margin of 18.02% compared to Aqua America's net margin of 15.42%. Aqua America's return on equity of 10.09% beat California Water Service Group's return on equity.
California Water Service Group presently has a consensus price target of $54.25, suggesting a potential upside of 10.74%. Given Aqua America's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe California Water Service Group is more favorable than Aqua America.
California Water Service Group has a beta of 0.47, suggesting that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aqua America has a beta of 0.32, suggesting that its share price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
California Water Service Group beats Aqua America on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding WTR 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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