WTR vs. CWT, AWR, AWK, WTRG, SBS, PNW, OGE, BEP, SWX, and UGI
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), Essential Utilities (WTRG), Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP (SBS), Pinnacle West Capital (PNW), OGE Energy (OGE), Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP), Southwest Gas (SWX), and UGI (UGI). 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 better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, community ranking, risk, analyst recommendations and media sentiment.
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 125.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Aqua America pays out 66.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. California Water Service Group has increased its dividend for 58 consecutive years. Aqua America is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Aqua America has higher revenue and earnings than California Water Service Group. Aqua America is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than California Water Service Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
California Water Service Group currently has a consensus target price of $53.50, indicating a potential upside of 11.34%. Given Aqua America's higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe California Water Service Group is more favorable than Aqua America.
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. 0.9% 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, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
California Water Service Group has a beta of 0.49, suggesting that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aqua America has a beta of 0.32, suggesting that its stock price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Aqua America received 84 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 53.80% of users gave California Water Service Group an outperform vote.
Aqua America has a net margin of 18.02% compared to Aqua America's net margin of 6.53%. California Water Service Group's return on equity of 8.81% beat Aqua America's return on equity.
In the previous week, California Water Service Group had 12 more articles in the media than Aqua America. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for California Water Service Group and 0 mentions for Aqua America. Aqua America's average media sentiment score of 0.77 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.
Summary
Aqua America beats California Water Service Group on 11 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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