Bank of New York Mellon Corp Sells 23,712 Shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp decreased its holdings in shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,249,426 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 23,712 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned approximately 0.64% of American Water Works worth $155,541,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 1,977 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $289,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 49.0% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 11,767 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,721,000 after purchasing an additional 3,870 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 3,824 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $559,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 50,503 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,386,000 after purchasing an additional 2,125 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 41.4% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,523 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $223,000 after purchasing an additional 446 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on American Water Works from $129.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group upgraded American Water Works from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective 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 American Water Works from $147.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $140.57.

American Water Works Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of AWK stock opened at $136.21 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.55 billion, a PE ratio of 25.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.72. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a 1-year low of $113.34 and a 1-year high of $150.68. The business has a 50-day moving average of $125.81 and a 200 day moving average of $134.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.39 and a quick ratio of 0.35.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The utilities provider reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.11 billion. American Water Works had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 22.44%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

American Water Works Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be given a dividend of $0.765 per share. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. American Water Works’s payout ratio is 56.77%.

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.