Reasons to Add Global Water Resources (GWRS) to Your Portfolio
Global Water Resources Inc.’s GWRS significant progress in expanding through organic means, acquisitions and spreading operations in new service areas is expected to further drive its performance. Given its growth opportunities, GWRS makes for a solid investment option in the utility sector.
Let’s focus on the factors that make this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock a strong investment pick at the moment.
Growth Projections & Surprise History
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2023 earnings per share (EPS) has moved up 7.4% in the past 30 days to 29 cents.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2023 revenues is pegged at $51.85 million, indicating year-over-year growth of 15.9%.
GWRS’ long-term (three-to-five years) earnings growth rate is 8%. The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 27.1% in the last four quarters.
Return on Equity
Return on equity (ROE) indicates how efficiently a company has been utilizing the funds to generate higher returns. Currently, Global Water Resources’ ROE is 12.6%, higher than the industry’s average of 9.58%. This indicates that the company has been utilizing the funds more constructively than its peers in the water supply utility industry.
Solvency
The times interest earned ratio is a solvency ratio. It is used to measure how well the company can cover its interest obligations. The time to interest earned ratio at the end of third-quarter 2023 was 3.3, which being greater than one indicates that GWRS is in a good position to meet its interest obligations.
Dividend History
GWRS has consistently increased the value of its stockholders by paying dividends. Currently, its monthly cash dividend is 2.483 cents per share, resulting in an annualized dividend of 29.8 cents per share. The company’s current dividend yield is 2.51%, better than the Zacks S&P 500 Composite's average of 1.42%.
Business Growth
The company expects to increase its long-term investments in existing utilities to increase revenues, reduce expenses and build a rate base to provide safe, reliable service. During the third quarter of 2023, the company invested $4.9 million in infrastructure projects to support existing utilities and continued growth.
The improving economic condition in Arizona resulted in a growing customer base and fresh demand for GWRS’ services. The company has invested $49.7 billion of capital in Arizona for the years 2020 through 2022, which reflects an increase of 588% over the preceding three years.
Price Performance
In the last six months, the GWRS stock returned 4.2% against the industry’s average 39.5% decline.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Other Stocks to Consider
A few other top-ranked stocks from the same sector are SJW Group SJW, The York Water Company YORW and PPL Corporation PPL. Each stock presently carries a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SJW’s 2023 EPS is pegged at $2.54, implying a year-over-year improvement of 5%. The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 20.1% in the last four quarters.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for YORW’s 2023 EPS is pegged at $1.59, implying a year-over-year improvement of 13.6%. The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 6.7% in the last four quarters.
PPL’s long-term earnings growth rate is 7.42%. The consensus estimate for the company’s 2023 EPS is pegged at $1.58, indicating a year-over-year improvement of 12.1%.
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PPL Corporation (PPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
The York Water Company (YORW) : Free Stock Analysis Report
SJW Group (SJW) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Global Water Resources, Inc. (GWRS) : Free Stock Analysis Report
