American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) Earns “Underperform” Rating from Bank of America

Bank of America restated their underperform rating on shares of American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a $140.00 target price on the utilities provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut American Water Works from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and increased their price objective for the company from $127.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $164.00 price objective on shares of American Water Works in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wolfe Research raised American Water Works to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, American Water Works has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $140.29.

American Water Works Trading Down 1.2 %

NYSE AWK opened at $147.23 on Friday. 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 has a 12 month low of $113.34 and a 12 month high of $150.68. The stock has a market cap of $28.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.86, a P/E/G ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 0.69. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $143.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $131.85.

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

American Water Works Dividend Announcement

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 $0.765 dividend. This represents a $3.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 13th. 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 American Water Works 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 approximately $5,268,308. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AWK. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of American Water Works by 43.3% during the 4th quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,622 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $346,000 after buying an additional 792 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 9,005 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in American Water Works by 12.8% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 57,039 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,529,000 after purchasing an additional 6,485 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commerce Bank lifted its holdings in American Water Works by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 21,244 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,804,000 after purchasing an additional 984 shares in the last quarter. 86.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

American Water Works Company Profile

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.