American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Shares Bought by Albion Financial Group UT

Albion Financial Group UT lifted its holdings in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 7.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,424 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 704 shares during the period. Albion Financial Group UT’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $1,274,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Dudley & Shanley Inc. grew its stake in shares of American Water Works by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Dudley & Shanley Inc. now owns 166,490 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $20,347,000 after purchasing an additional 4,146 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of American Water Works by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 464,591 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $56,778,000 after purchasing an additional 1,481 shares during the last quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 4.4% in the first quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,831 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 100.0% in the first quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 254 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 127 shares during the period. Finally, FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH boosted its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 6.0% in the first quarter. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH now owns 31,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,831,000 after buying an additional 1,766 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on AWK. StockNews.com cut shares of American Water Works from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of American Water Works from $124.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, May 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.33.

American Water Works Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of AWK stock traded down $0.50 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $127.96. 402,683 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,367,180. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.04, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.67. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $129.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $125.45. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a twelve month low of $113.34 and a twelve month high of $151.22.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.98 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $962.30 million. American Water Works had a return on equity of 9.74% and a net margin of 22.27%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.91 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Water Works Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 14th were given a dividend of $0.765 per share. This represents a $3.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 13th. This is a positive change from American Water Works’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. American Water Works’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.07%.

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.