American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Receives $143.00 Consensus PT from Analysts

American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the eleven ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have assigned a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $143.00.

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AWK. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on American Water Works in a research report on Monday, October 27th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $142.00 target price on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on American Water Works from $128.00 to $134.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. TD Cowen started coverage on American Water Works in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $155.00 target price for the company. Mizuho set a $145.00 price target on shares of American Water Works in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of American Water Works from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $114.00 to $124.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th.

American Water Works Trading Up 2.0%

NYSE:AWK opened at $134.13 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $133.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $138.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. American Water Works has a 1-year low of $118.74 and a 1-year high of $155.50.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.36 billion. American Water Works had a net margin of 21.93% and a return on equity of 10.48%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.80 EPS. American Water Works has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.700-5.750 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 6.020-6.120 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that American Water Works will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

American Water Works Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be given a $0.8275 dividend. This represents a $3.31 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 10th. American Water Works’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.17%.

Institutional Trading of American Water Works

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AWK. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of American Water Works by 881.1% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,704,995 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $546,562,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,352 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in American Water Works in the second quarter valued at about $344,645,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in American Water Works by 383.0% during the third quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 2,596,125 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $361,355,000 after buying an additional 2,058,656 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment grew its position in shares of American Water Works by 114.3% during the 1st quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 1,505,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,296,000 after buying an additional 802,639 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of American Water Works by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,227,049 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,650,543,000 after acquiring an additional 597,916 shares during the last quarter. 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.