American Water Works’ (AWK) Outperform Rating Reiterated at Royal Bank of Canada

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reissued by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $164.00 target price on the utilities provider’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 11.22% from the company’s current price.

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company cut American Water Works from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $127.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $140.33.

American Water Works Price Performance

NYSE:AWK traded down $1.49 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $147.45. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 77,178 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,212,378. The business’s 50-day moving average is $142.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $131.38. The company has a market capitalization of $28.73 billion, a PE ratio of 29.91, a PEG ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.64. American Water Works has a 52-week low of $113.34 and a 52-week high of $150.68.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that American Water Works will post 5.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at American Water Works

In related news, Director Martha Clark Goss sold 710 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.85, for a total transaction of $101,423.50. Following the sale, the director now owns 36,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,268,308. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of American Water Works

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AWK. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in American Water Works by 43.3% in the 4th quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,622 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 792 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in American Water Works by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 352,583 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,537,000 after buying an additional 15,933 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in American Water Works by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 94,996 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,539,000 after buying an additional 9,005 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in American Water Works in the 4th quarter worth about $635,000. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in American Water Works by 29.4% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 766 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $101,000 after buying an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

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.