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

American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $141.17.

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AWK. Wells Fargo & Company cut American Water Works from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $127.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group boosted their target price on American Water Works from $124.00 to $139.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded American Water Works from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd.

American Water Works Price Performance

Shares of AWK opened at $143.69 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $27.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.15, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.67. The business’s 50-day moving average is $132.52 and its 200-day moving average is $126.17. American Water Works has a fifty-two week low of $113.34 and a fifty-two week high of $148.20.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by ($0.03). American Water Works had a return on equity of 9.74% and a net margin of 22.27%. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $962.30 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.91 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that American Water Works will post 5.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of American Water Works

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AWK. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of American Water Works during the 4th quarter worth about $275,476,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in shares of American Water Works by 945.5% during 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 worth $238,397,000 after acquiring an additional 1,633,389 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new stake in shares of American Water Works during the 1st quarter worth about $108,688,000. Boston Partners bought a new stake in shares of American Water Works during the 4th quarter worth about $92,838,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.