American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the four ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $135.60.

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut American Water Works from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $127.00 to $138.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $164.00 target price on shares of American Water Works in a research note on Thursday.

American Water Works Price Performance

Shares of American Water Works stock traded down $1.49 during trading on Thursday, hitting $147.45. The stock had a trading volume of 77,178 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,212,378. The firm has a market cap of $28.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 0.69. American Water Works has a 12 month low of $113.34 and a 12 month high of $150.68. The business’s 50-day moving average is $142.86 and its 200 day moving average is $131.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. American Water Works had a return on equity of 9.60% and a net margin of 21.93%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that American Water Works will post 5.27 earnings per share for the current year.

American Water Works Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th were paid a dividend of $0.765 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 13th. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.08%. American Water Works’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 62.07%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Martha Clark Goss sold 710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.85, for a total transaction of $101,423.50. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 36,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,268,308. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of American Water Works

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of American Water Works by 2.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,648,326 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,012,272,000 after acquiring an additional 624,977 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its position in shares of American Water Works by 153.8% during the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 13,640 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,667,000 after acquiring an additional 8,266 shares in the last quarter. Duality Advisers LP increased its position in shares of American Water Works by 202.2% during the first quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 46,633 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,699,000 after acquiring an additional 31,203 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its position in shares of American Water Works by 945.5% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,806,146 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $238,397,000 after acquiring an additional 1,633,389 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parsifal Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of American Water Works during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,441,000. 86.58% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About American Water Works

American Water Works Company, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides water and wastewater services in the United States. It offers water and wastewater services to approximately 1,700 communities in 14 states serving approximately 3.5 million active customers. The company serves residential customers; commercial customers, including food and beverage providers, commercial property developers and proprietors, and energy suppliers; fire service and private fire customers; industrial customers, such as large-scale manufacturers, mining, and production operations; public authorities comprising government buildings and other public sector facilities, such as schools and universities; and other utilities and community water and wastewater systems.