Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Sells 500 Shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System decreased its holdings in shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 500 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $1,307,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of American Water Works by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,503,553 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,682,280,000 after purchasing an additional 214,082 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in American Water Works by 1.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,564,193 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $665,163,000 after purchasing an additional 43,754 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of American Water Works by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,418,102 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $300,739,000 after purchasing an additional 125,128 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of American Water Works by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,245,306 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $328,354,000 after purchasing an additional 143,914 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in American Water Works by 1,131.1% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,438,137 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $210,313,000 after acquiring an additional 1,321,320 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AWK. UBS Group upgraded American Water Works from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $151.00 to $155.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on American Water Works from $147.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded American Water Works from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $133.00 to $129.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $140.00.

American Water Works Stock Down 0.9 %

American Water Works stock opened at $125.76 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $125.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $135.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.58. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $113.34 and a fifty-two week high of $150.68. The stock has a market cap of $24.51 billion, a PE ratio of 24.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.72.

American Water Works Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of $0.765 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.43%. American Water Works’s dividend payout ratio is currently 60.59%.

American Water Works 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.