American Water Works’ (AWK) Underperform Rating Reiterated at Bank of America

Bank of America reiterated their underperform rating on shares of American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) in a research note published on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Bank of America currently has a $140.00 price objective on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on AWK. Wolfe Research upgraded American Water Works to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of American Water Works from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and increased their target price for the company from $127.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $140.29.

American Water Works Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AWK opened at $147.52 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $143.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $132.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The company has a market cap of $28.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 0.69. American Water Works has a 1-year low of $113.34 and a 1-year high of $150.68.

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). American Water Works had a return on equity of 9.60% and a net margin of 21.93%. The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that American Water Works will post 5.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Water Works Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th were issued a $0.765 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 13th. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. American Water Works’s payout ratio is 62.07%.

Insider Activity at American Water Works

In other American Water Works news, Director Martha Clark Goss sold 710 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.85, for a total transaction of $101,423.50. Following the completion of the sale, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 624,977 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. grew its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 153.8% in the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 13,640 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,667,000 after acquiring an additional 8,266 shares during the period. Duality Advisers LP increased its stake in American Water Works by 202.2% in the 1st quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 46,633 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,699,000 after purchasing an additional 31,203 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its stake in American Water Works by 945.5% in 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 valued at $238,397,000 after purchasing an additional 1,633,389 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parsifal Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in American Water Works during the fourth quarter worth $44,441,000. 86.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.