American States Water (NYSE:AWR) Short Interest Down 8.7% in January

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 705,700 shares, a decrease of 8.7% from the December 31st total of 773,300 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 204,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.5 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American States Water

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AWR. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of American States Water by 172.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 78,706 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,554,000 after purchasing an additional 49,851 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its stake in American States Water by 16.1% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 7,506 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 1,041 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its position in American States Water by 110.5% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 21,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,776,000 after acquiring an additional 11,197 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of American States Water by 1.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 850,878 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $70,884,000 after purchasing an additional 13,024 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC grew its position in American States Water by 31.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 72,715 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,056,000 after purchasing an additional 17,295 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.24% of the company’s stock.

American States Water Stock Down 2.2 %

AWR traded down $1.65 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $72.85. 187,887 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 191,923. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $77.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $81.19. American States Water has a fifty-two week low of $66.03 and a fifty-two week high of $87.50. The company has a market cap of $2.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.53, a PEG ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.64.

American States Water (NYSE:AWR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.98 by ($0.03). American States Water had a return on equity of 13.53% and a net margin of 19.26%. The firm had revenue of $161.78 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $161.00 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.85 EPS. American States Water’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that American States Water will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AWR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com cut American States Water from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of American States Water from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $77.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Bank of America lowered American States Water from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Monday.

American States Water Company 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.