American Water Works Company, Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.77 (NYSE:AWK)

American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 29th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of 0.765 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $3.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th.

American Water Works has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.9% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 17 consecutive years. American Water Works has a payout ratio of 53.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect American Water Works to earn $5.69 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.06 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 53.8%.

American Water Works Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of AWK opened at $135.69 on Thursday. American Water Works has a 52-week low of $113.34 and a 52-week high of $150.68. The business’s fifty day moving average is $142.85 and its 200-day moving average is $136.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market cap of $26.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.64, a PEG ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.69.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.84 by ($0.04). American Water Works had a net margin of 21.93% and a return on equity of 9.60%. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.20 billion. Equities analysts anticipate that American Water Works will post 5.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other American Water Works 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 trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AWK. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on American Water Works in a research note on Monday, October 7th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $124.00 price target on the stock. Mizuho lowered American Water Works from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $131.00 to $140.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $164.00 price objective on shares of American Water Works in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered American Water Works from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $127.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded American Water Works to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $140.00.

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.