OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings raised its long-term rating on Port St. Lucie, Fla.'s utility system revenue bonds to 'A+' from 'A-'. The outlook is stable.

At the same time, S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'A+' rating on the city's utility system refunding revenue bonds, series 2016. The outlook is stable.

"The upgrade reflects our view of projected strong debt service coverage and extremely strong liquidity," said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Scott Winrow. The upgrade also reflects the application of our revised criteria, "Rating Methodology for U. S. Municipal Waterworks and Sanitary Sewer Utility Revenue Bonds," published Jan. 19, 2016, on RatingsDirect.

The enterprise risk profile reflects our view of the system's:Service area participation in the broad and diverse Port St. Lucie metropolitan statistical area;Ample system resources and capacity to meet the needs of the system's stable and diverse customer base; Affordable rates representing 2.3% of median household effective buying income; andGood operational management practices and policies. The financial risk profile reflects our view of the system's:Adequate-to-strong historical all-in debt service coverage that we believe the utility will continue to produce in the near term; Extremely strong liquidity position that believe is sustainable in the near term;Moderate leverage based on a debt-to-capitalization ratio of about 59%, with no additional debt plans in the near future; and Good financial management practices and policies. We expect the outlook to remain stable over the two-year outlook period. We also expect the system to maintain all-in coverage at levels we consider generally strong and cash levels we consider very strong. In addition, the service area's participation in a broad and diverse area economy adds stability to the rating.

Given these expectations, we do not expect to raise the rating during our outlook's two-year horizon. If the system evidences a consistently stronger financial profile, specifically coverage metrics that we view as sustainable, we may consider a higher rating.

Conversely should financial metrics erode materially from current levels, we may consider a lower rating.