Teacher Retirement System of Texas Buys Shares of 5,522 American States Water Company (NYSE:AWR)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new stake in American States Water Company (NYSE:AWR - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 5,522 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $434,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AWR. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in American States Water during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $45,254,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its stake in American States Water by 30.9% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 1,118,566 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $86,935,000 after acquiring an additional 264,257 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in American States Water by 62,545.4% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 149,096 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $11,731,000 after acquiring an additional 148,858 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in American States Water by 31.0% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 350,616 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $27,250,000 after acquiring an additional 82,951 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in American States Water by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 603,758 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $46,924,000 after acquiring an additional 76,300 shares during the last quarter. 75.24% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded American States Water from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $76.00 to $84.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 8th.

American States Water Stock Performance

NYSE AWR traded down $0.49 on Monday, hitting $75.19. 187,764 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 218,304. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $77.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $76.84. American States Water Company has a fifty-two week low of $70.30 and a fifty-two week high of $87.50. The firm has a market cap of $2.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.14, a P/E/G ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 0.61.

American States Water (NYSE:AWR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.70. The business had revenue of $148.01 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $142.00 million. American States Water had a return on equity of 13.45% and a net margin of 20.22%. The company's revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.62 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that American States Water Company will post 3.34 EPS for the current year.

American States Water Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th were issued a $0.4655 dividend. This represents a $1.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 19th. American States Water's dividend payout ratio is currently 57.23%.

Insider Buying and Selling at American States Water

In other news, Director Thomas A. Eichelberger purchased 897 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $76.81 per share, for a total transaction of $68,898.57. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 8,467 shares in the company, valued at approximately $650,350.27. The trade was a 11.85% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

American States Water 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.