American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) Receives Underperform Rating from Bank of America

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK)‘s stock had its “underperform” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Bank of America in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $140.00 price objective on the utilities provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s target price would indicate a potential downside of 6.12% from the company’s previous close.

AWK has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of American Water Works to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of American Water Works from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $127.00 to $138.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $164.00 target price on shares of American Water Works in a research note on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $140.29.

American Water Works Stock Performance

Shares of AWK opened at $149.12 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $143.12 and a 200-day moving average of $131.51. American Water Works has a one year low of $113.34 and a one year high of $150.68. The company has a market cap of $29.05 billion, a PE ratio of 30.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.58.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Martha Clark Goss sold 710 shares of American Water Works stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.85, for a total transaction of $101,423.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 36,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,268,308. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Water Works

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in American Water Works by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,648,326 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,012,272,000 after acquiring an additional 624,977 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. grew its holdings in American Water Works by 153.8% during the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 13,640 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,667,000 after acquiring an additional 8,266 shares during the last quarter. Duality Advisers LP grew its holdings in American Water Works by 202.2% during the 1st quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 46,633 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,699,000 after acquiring an additional 31,203 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in shares of American Water Works by 945.5% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 1,633,389 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parsifal Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of American Water Works in the 4th quarter valued at $44,441,000. 86.58% of the stock is owned by 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.