Analysts Set American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Target Price at $140.00

Shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) have received a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the eight brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $140.00.

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and set a $140.00 price objective on shares of American Water Works in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of American Water Works in a research note on Monday, October 7th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $124.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of American Water Works from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $127.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Mizuho downgraded shares of American Water Works from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $131.00 to $140.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of American Water Works to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th.

American Water Works Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of AWK opened at $142.58 on Monday. American Water Works has a one year low of $113.34 and a one year high of $150.68. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $143.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $134.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.64. The company has a market capitalization of $27.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.69.

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

American Water Works Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th were given a dividend of $0.765 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 13th. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.15%. American Water Works’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.07%.

Insider Activity

In other American Water Works news, Director Martha Clark Goss sold 710 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.85, for a total value of $101,423.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 36,880 shares in the company, valued at $5,268,308. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Water Works

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 2.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,648,326 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,012,272,000 after buying an additional 624,977 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its holdings in American Water Works by 153.8% in the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 13,640 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,667,000 after purchasing an additional 8,266 shares in the last quarter. Duality Advisers LP boosted its stake in shares of American Water Works by 202.2% during the 1st quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 46,633 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,699,000 after acquiring an additional 31,203 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in American Water Works by 21.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 31,283 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,023,000 after purchasing an additional 5,564 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Howland Capital Management LLC grew its stake in American Water Works by 20.0% in the 1st quarter. Howland Capital Management LLC now owns 163,185 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $19,943,000 after buying an additional 27,200 shares during the last quarter. 86.58% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.