Wells Fargo & Company Raises American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) Price Target to $142.00

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) had its target price upped by stock analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $133.00 to $142.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 0.69% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on AWK. StockNews.com raised American Water Works from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group raised shares of American Water Works from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $151.00 to $155.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, American Water Works has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.86.

American Water Works Stock Performance

Shares of AWK traded up $0.17 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $141.03. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 334,369 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,422,627. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $128.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $134.46. American Water Works has a 52-week low of $113.34 and a 52-week high of $152.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.39 and a quick ratio of 0.35. The company has a market cap of $27.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.16, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.69.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The utilities provider reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.11 billion. American Water Works had a net margin of 22.44% and a return on equity of 10.29%. On average, equities analysts expect that American Water Works will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Water Works

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. IHT Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,424 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $938,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its position in American Water Works by 31.7% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 370 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $54,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Brookfield Corp ON increased its stake in American Water Works by 0.3% in the third quarter. Brookfield Corp ON now owns 32,601 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,768,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its position in American Water Works by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $250,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton lifted its stake in American Water Works by 29.0% during the fourth quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. 86.58% of the stock is 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.