American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) Stock Price Down 0.3%

American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK)’s stock price dropped 0.3% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $119.93 and last traded at $121.05. Approximately 324,434 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 1,444,259 shares. The stock had previously closed at $121.36.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI cut American Water Works from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $160.00 to $135.00 in a report on Friday, February 16th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of American Water Works from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd.

American Water Works Stock Down 0.6 %

The company has a 50 day moving average of $119.13 and a 200-day moving average of $124.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The company has a market cap of $23.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.63.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The utilities provider reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. American Water Works had a return on equity of 9.70% and a net margin of 22.30%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.81 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Melanie M. Kennedy sold 843 shares of American Water Works stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.59, for a total transaction of $100,814.37. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,240 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,942,141.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of American Water Works in the fourth quarter valued at about $275,476,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its stake in shares of American Water Works by 945.5% during 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 during the period. Boston Partners bought a new stake in shares of American Water Works during the 4th quarter valued at $92,838,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of American Water Works by 7,752.4% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 483,391 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $63,803,000 after buying an additional 477,235 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of American Water Works by 12,606.5% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 463,913 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $612,320,000 after purchasing an additional 460,262 shares during the period. 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.