American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Holdings Decreased by Freedom Investment Management Inc.

Freedom Investment Management Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 6.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 29,906 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,926 shares during the quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $3,947,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of American Water Works by 3.6% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,591,939 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $444,790,000 after buying an additional 124,815 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in American Water Works by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,974,530 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $368,336,000 after buying an additional 32,975 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of American Water Works by 10.5% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,831,622 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $350,640,000 after purchasing an additional 267,987 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of American Water Works by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,624,871 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $325,038,000 after buying an additional 118,221 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of American Water Works by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,117,550 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $279,495,000 after buying an additional 117,170 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of American Water Works from $124.00 to $139.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Evercore ISI cut shares of American Water Works from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $160.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, StockNews.com cut American Water Works from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, American Water Works presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.33.

American Water Works Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE AWK traded up $1.09 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $129.22. The company had a trading volume of 942,856 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,419,393. The company has a market capitalization of $25.18 billion, a PE ratio of 26.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.67. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $126.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $125.75. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a one year low of $113.34 and a one year high of $151.22.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.98 by ($0.03). American Water Works had a net margin of 22.27% and a return on equity of 9.74%. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $962.30 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.91 EPS. American Water Works’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.24 EPS for the current year.

American Water Works Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 14th were issued a dividend of $0.765 per share. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.37%. 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 payout ratio is 62.07%.

American Water Works 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.