Yahoo Finance Reasons to Add York Water (YORW) to Your Portfolio Right Now
The York Water Company YORW continues to benefit from providing safe, reliable and high-quality water and wastewater services to its customers. Given its growth opportunities, YORW makes for a solid investment option in the utility sector.
Let’s focus on the factors that make this currently Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company a strong investment pick at the moment.
Growth Projections & Surprise History
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 earnings per share (EPS) is pinned at $1.61, which remained unchanged in the past 60 days. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 EPS has moved up 0.6% in the past 60 days to $1.69 per share.
The consensus mark for 2024 revenues is pinned at $74 million, indicating a year-over-year increase of 4.2%.
The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 8.5% in the last four quarters.
Return on Equity (ROE)
The metric indicates how efficiently a company has been utilizing the funds to generate higher returns. Currently, York Water’s ROE is 11.05%, higher than the industry’s average of 9.62%. This indicates that the company has been utilizing the funds more constructively than its peers in the water supply utility industry.
Debt Position
Currently, York Water’s total debt to capital is 44.87%, better than the industry’s average of 54.64%.
The time-to-interest earned ratio at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023 was 4.6. The ratio, being greater than one, reflects York Water’s ability to meet future interest obligations without difficulties.
Dividend History
The company has been consistently increasing the value of its stockholders by paying dividends. In January 2024, it declared a quarterly dividend of 21.08 cents per share, resulting in an annualized dividend of 84.32 cents. This is the 613th consecutive dividend to be paid by YORW. The company’s current dividend yield is 2.33%, better than the Zacks S&P 500 Composite's average of 1.3%.
Business Growth
In 2023, York Water invested $64.6 million in construction expenditures for armoring and replacing the spillway of the Lake Williams dam, wastewater treatment plant construction, and routine items, as well as in various replacements and improvements to infrastructure.
York Water plans to invest nearly $42.2 million in 2024 and $46.1 million in 2025, excluding acquisitions, to further improve its operations.
Price Performance
In the past month, the company’s shares lost 2.1% compared with the industry’s 3% decline.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Other Stocks to Consider
A few other top-ranked stocks from the same industry are American Water Works AWK, American States Water AWR and Consolidated Water CWCO, each presently carrying a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
AWK’s long-term earnings growth rate is 7.76%. The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 6% in the last four quarters.
AWR’s long-term earnings growth rate is 6.3%. The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 6% in the last four quarters.
CWCO’s long-term earnings growth rate is 8%. It delivered an average earnings surprise of 61.6% in the last four quarters.
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The York Water Company (YORW) : Free Stock Analysis Report
American Water Works Company, Inc. (AWK) : Free Stock Analysis Report
American States Water Company (AWR) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. (CWCO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
