California Water Service Group (CWT)
Utilities · NYQ · US
Fundamentals
Valuation and ratings
California Water Service Group trades at USD51.34, which is 45% above the USD28.08 our discounted cash flow model puts on the business. On that measure it screens as expensive, which is not the same as saying it will fall.
Our moat model scores it 50 out of 100, which is a moat, but not a deep one. A moat is a structural reason competitors cannot take the profits away, and it matters more to a long holding period than any single quarter's numbers do.
It changes hands at 24.9 times earnings. Be careful reading that in isolation: for a cyclical business a low P/E arrives at the top of the cycle, when profits are peaking and about to fall, which is exactly when the shares look cheapest and are not.
About California Water Service Group
California Water Service Group, through its subsidiaries, provides water utility and other related services in California, Washington, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Texas. It is involved in the production, purchase, storage, treatment, testing, distribution, and sale of water for domestic, industrial, public, and irrigation uses, as well as for fire protection services. The company offers its services to approximately 500,000 customer connections in 20 separate districts; approximately 6,800 water and wastewater customer connections on the islands of Kauai, Maui, Oahu, and Hawaii; approximately 38,500 customer connections in the Tacoma, Olympia, Graham, Spanaway, Puyallup, Rainier, Yelm, and Gig Harbor areas; and approximately 11,800 water and wastewater customer connections in Rio Communities, Rio Del Oro, Meadow Lake, Indian Hills, Squaw Valley, Elephant Butte, Morningstar, Sandia Knolls, Juan Tomas, Monterey, and Cypress Gardens systems. The company also engages in the provision of non-regulated water-related services, including operating of municipally owned water systems, privately owned water, and recycled water distribution systems; water system operation, meter reading, and billing services to private companies and municipalities; leasing of communication antenna sites on its properties; and billing of optional third-party insurance programs to its residential customers. In addition, it provides wastewater collection and treatment services. California Water Service Group was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.
CWT passes 2 of our 30 screens today
Each screen prints the exact criteria it used, and the circumstances in which it is wrong.
Smart money ownership
9 of the funds we track reported a position in their latest SEC 13F filing. Largest first:
- Arrowstreet Capital, ARROWSTREET CAPITAL, LIMITED PARTNERSHIP$11.70M · 0.0% of book
- Marshall Wace, MARSHALL WACE, LLP$11.64M · 0.0% of book
- Cliff Asness, AQR CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC$7.70M · 0.0% of book
- Renaissance Technologies, RENAISSANCE TECHNOLOGIES LLC$4.55M · 0.0% of book
- D. E. Shaw, D. E. Shaw & Co., Inc.$3.75M · 0.0% of book
A word of warning on reading these figures: a 13F reports the market value of a holding, so a fund that traded nothing at all still appears to have sold when the price fell. We found 102 companies where the standard reading gives the opposite answer. Only the share count is honest.
Common questions
Is California Water Service Group (CWT) undervalued?
Against our discounted cash flow estimate of USD28.08, CWT at USD51.34 is 45% above fair value. That is one model's answer, not a recommendation, and most of a DCF's output sits in a terminal value nobody can forecast.
Which funds own CWT?
9 of the institutions we track reported a position in CWT in their most recent SEC 13F filing. A 13F is filed up to 45 days after quarter end, so it tells you what a fund held then, not what it holds now.
What is CWT's P/E ratio?
CWT trades at 24.9 times earnings. A low P/E is not automatically cheap: on a cyclical company it is usually a warning that earnings are at a peak.
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Data from company filings, exchange quotes and SEC EDGAR 13F disclosures. Quotes are delayed. Metrics we do not have are left out rather than estimated. Educational information, not financial advice.