American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Receives $140.57 Average Target Price from Analysts

American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eight brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $141.86.

AWK has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price 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. UBS Group upgraded American Water Works from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $151.00 to $155.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on American Water Works from $133.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded American Water Works from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th.

Institutional Trading of American Water Works

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AWK. Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in shares of American Water Works in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Providence First Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of American Water Works in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of American Water Works in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of American Water Works in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 54.2% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. 86.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

American Water Works Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE AWK opened at $144.86 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.24 billion, a PE ratio of 26.88, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.69. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $129.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $134.47. American Water Works has a twelve month low of $113.34 and a twelve month high of $152.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21.

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

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.