CWCO or GWRS: Which Is a Better Positioned Water Supply Stock?

The Zacks Utility - Water Supply industry includes companies that provide drinking water and wastewater services to industrial, commercial and residential customers, along with numerous military bases across the country.

Healthy and hygienic living requires a constant, uninterrupted flow of clean potable water and reliable sewer services. Every day, water utilities perform the vital task of providing water that is potable to millions of Americans. Utility operators own storage tanks, treatment plants and desalination plants to continuously supply potable water to all kinds of consumers.

Water utility operators own nearly 2.2 million miles of pipelines that are getting old. Utilities replace old pipelines and add new ones to expand operations. Per the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an estimated $1.25 trillion investment is necessary to maintain and expand the drinking water and wastewater service to meet demand over the next 20 years. The massive investment requirement also creates an opportunity for growth among operators in this space.

Utilities need massive investments to maintain, upgrade and expand operations. Capital-intensive utility operators will benefit from the interest rate cuts and continue their capital expenditures at reduced capital servicing expenses.

In this article, we have run a comparative analysis on two Zacks Utility – Water Supply companies — Consolidated Water CWCO and Global Water Resources GWRS — to decide which one is a better pick for your portfolio.

Both companies carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Consolidated Water has a market capitalization of $534.5 million, while Global Water Resources has $275.56 million.

CWCO & GWRS’ Growth Projections

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CWCO’s 2025 earnings is pinned at $1.05 per share on revenues of $133.09 million. This implies a year-over-year bottom-line decrease of 6.3% and a top-line decline of 0.7%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate mark for GWRS’ 2025 earnings is pegged at 22 cents per share on revenues of $55.85 million. This indicates a year-over-year bottom-line decline of 15.4% and top-line growth of 6%.

Debt Position & Liquidity of CWCO & GWRS

The debt-to-capital ratio is a vital indicator of the financial position of a company. It shows the amount of debt used to run a business. Currently, Consolidated Water and Global Water Resources have a debt-to-capital of 0.06% and 61.14%, respectively, compared with the industry’s 50.04%.

The current ratio, if more than one, indicates that the company has enough financial flexibility to meet its near-term debt obligations. CWCO and GWRS have a current ratio of 5.24 and 1.09, respectively, compared to their industry average of 0.9.

CWCO & GWRS’ Dividend Yield

Utility companies generally distribute dividends and increase shareholders’ value. Currently, the dividend yield for Consolidated Water is 1.67% and that for Global Water Resources is 3.03% compared with the Zacks S&P 500 Composite’s average of 1.15%.

CWCO & GWRS’ Surprise History

Consolidated Water delivered an average earnings surprise of 40.1% for the trailing four quarters. Global Water Resources delivered a negative earnings surprise of 6.1% in the last four quarters.

CWCO & GWRS Stocks’ Price Performance

In the past six months, shares of CWCO have risen 21.9%, while those of GWRS have lost 13%. The industry has risen 11.5% in the same time frame.

Conclusion

Both Consolidated Water and Global Water Resources are evenly matched and good picks for your portfolio. Both companies are focused on providing water and wastewater services to customers and have the capacity to expand further and improve service reliability. However, our choice at this moment is CWCO, given its better debt management, liquidity and price performance than GWRS. 
 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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