The excitement of investing in a company that can reverse its fortunes is a big draw for some speculators, so even companies that have no revenue, no profit, and a record of falling short, can manage to find investors. Unfortunately, these high risk investments often have little probability of ever paying off, and many investors pay a price to learn their lesson. While a well funded company may sustain losses for years, it will need to generate a profit eventually, or else investors will move on and the company will wither away.

Despite being in the age of tech-stock blue-sky investing, many investors still adopt a more traditional strategy; buying shares in profitable companies like California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT). While profit isn't the sole metric that should be considered when investing, it's worth recognising businesses that can consistently produce it.

We've discovered 2 warning signs about California Water Service Group. View them for free.

How Fast Is California Water Service Group Growing?

The market is a voting machine in the short term, but a weighing machine in the long term, so you'd expect share price to follow earnings per share (EPS) outcomes eventually. That means EPS growth is considered a real positive by most successful long-term investors. Impressively, California Water Service Group has grown EPS by 18% per year, compound, in the last three years. If the company can sustain that sort of growth, we'd expect shareholders to come away satisfied.

Top-line growth is a great indicator that growth is sustainable, and combined with a high earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margin, it's a great way for a company to maintain a competitive advantage in the market. California Water Service Group shareholders can take confidence from the fact that EBIT margins are up from 10% to 27%, and revenue is growing. Ticking those two boxes is a good sign of growth, in our book.

In the chart below, you can see how the company has grown earnings and revenue, over time. Click on the chart to see the exact numbers.

See our latest analysis for California Water Service Group

The trick, as an investor, is to find companies that are going to perform well in the future, not just in the past. While crystal balls don't exist, you can check our visualization of consensus analyst forecasts for California Water Service Group's future EPS 100% free.

Are California Water Service Group Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

It's pleasing to see company leaders with putting their money on the line, so to speak, because it increases alignment of incentives between the people running the business, and its true owners. So it is good to see that California Water Service Group insiders have a significant amount of capital invested in the stock. As a matter of fact, their holding is valued at US$26m. That shows significant buy-in, and may indicate conviction in the business strategy. While their ownership only accounts for 0.9%, this is still a considerable amount at stake to encourage the business to maintain a strategy that will deliver value to shareholders.

While it's always good to see some strong conviction in the company from insiders through heavy investment, it's also important for shareholders to ask if management compensation policies are reasonable. Our quick analysis into CEO remuneration would seem to indicate they are. Our analysis has discovered that the median total compensation for the CEOs of companies like California Water Service Group with market caps between US$2.0b and US$6.4b is about US$7.6m.

The California Water Service Group CEO received US$4.8m in compensation for the year ending December 2024. That is actually below the median for CEO's of similarly sized companies. CEO remuneration levels are not the most important metric for investors, but when the pay is modest, that does support enhanced alignment between the CEO and the ordinary shareholders. It can also be a sign of good governance, more generally.

Does California Water Service Group Deserve A Spot On Your Watchlist?

You can't deny that California Water Service Group has grown its earnings per share at a very impressive rate. That's attractive. If you still have your doubts, remember too that company insiders have a considerable investment aligning themselves with the shareholders and CEO pay is quite modest compared to similarly sized companiess. The overarching message here is that California Water Service Group has underlying strengths that make it worth a look at. We should say that we've discovered 2 warning signs for California Water Service Group that you should be aware of before investing here.

Although California Water Service Group certainly looks good, it may appeal to more investors if insiders were buying up shares. If you like to see companies with more skin in the game, then check out this handpicked selection of companies that not only boast of strong growth but have strong insider backing.

Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.