Forensic Analysis · Water Utilities · as of Nov 9, 2026
California Water Service Group (CWT)
A forensic read on California Water Service Group built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
7.7%
ROE
6.4%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
California Water Service Group earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
2.7%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.7% in the latest fiscal year, against 1.5% in FY2023, having run between 1.5% and 4.0% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $61M in FY2023 and $135M in FY2025, with operating income at 9.8% of revenue in FY2023, 24.9% in FY2024 and 17.7% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +20% across FY2023–FY2025, from $4.1B to $4.9B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 1.5% the older base was already earning.
+11.9%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +11.9% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. Net operating assets also rose $487,000 through acquisitions (increase in goodwill and intangibles); that purchase is investing and is excluded from this ratio. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 6% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 11.9%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
+2.3%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +5% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+2.3%/yr). The count is growing — 57.0M shares in FY2023, 59.6M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~2.3% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~4%.
0.5% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.5% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.08 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 2.3% a year across FY2023–FY2025, and the rate is falling. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$963.7M
Revenue Growth YoY+6.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+10.4%
Net Margin13.3%
Return on Equity7.7%
Debt / Equity0.87x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from California Water Service Group's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?