H2O America (NASDAQ:HTO) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Moderate Buy consensus from seven analysts (3 hold, 3 buy, 1 strong buy) with an average 1‑year price target of $62; recent analyst moves include Barclays raising its target to $63 (overweight) and Robert W. Baird initiating coverage with an outperform and $67 target.
• FY 2026 guidance set at $3.080–$3.180 EPS while analysts expect ~2.75 EPS for the current year; shares trade at a P/E of ~19.9, the company pays a $1.76 annual dividend (3.0% yield) with a 60.3% payout ratio.
• Insider buying: major shareholder Atlas Infrastructure bought 50,385 shares at ~$59.06 (~$2.98M), increasing its stake to 4,582,469 shares (+1.11%), and institutional investors own about 84.3% of the stock.

Shares of H2O America (NASDAQ:HTO - Get Free Report) have been given a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" by the seven analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $62.00.

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of H2O America in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of H2O America from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, March 9th. UBS Group set a $61.00 target price on shares of H2O America in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Zacks Research raised shares of H2O America from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird began coverage on shares of H2O America in a research note on Friday, March 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $67.00 price target for the company.

H2O America Stock Performance

Shares of H2O America stock opened at $58.21 on Tuesday. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $56.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $51.53. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. H2O America has a 12 month low of $43.75 and a 12 month high of $60.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.42.

H2O America (NASDAQ:HTO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. H2O America had a return on equity of 7.08% and a net margin of 12.81%.The firm had revenue of $194.19 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $195.73 million. H2O America has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.080-3.180 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that H2O America will post 2.75 EPS for the current year.

H2O America Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 9th were given a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 9th. H2O America's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 60.27%.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Atlas Infrastructure Partners bought 50,385 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 10th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $59.06 per share, for a total transaction of $2,975,738.10. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 4,582,469 shares in the company, valued at $270,640,619.14. This represents a 1.11% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HTO. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its stake in H2O America by 194.9% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 525 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of H2O America by 1,020.8% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 594 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 541 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of H2O America in the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Hughes Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of H2O America in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc raised its position in shares of H2O America by 139.8% in the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 976 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 569 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.29% of the company's stock.

H2O America Company Profile

SJW Group, through its subsidiaries, provides water utility and other related services in the United States. It operates in Water Utility Services and Real Estate Services segments. The company engages in the production, purchase, storage, purification, distribution, wholesale, and retail sale of water and wastewater services; and supplies groundwater from wells, surface water from watershed run-off and diversion, reclaimed water, and imported water purchased from the Santa Clara Valley Water District.

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