American Water Works Company, Inc. $AWK Stock Acquired by Pictet Asset Management Holding SA

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its holdings in shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 442.6% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,213,669 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 990,012 shares during the quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $157,134,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of American Water Works in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,712,173,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in American Water Works by 35.2% in the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 14,911,963 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,962,116,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883,057 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC bought a new stake in American Water Works in the second quarter worth approximately $1,171,477,000. Amundi lifted its stake in American Water Works by 4.3% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 4,351,056 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $592,081,000 after buying an additional 179,127 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in American Water Works in the second quarter valued at approximately $443,787,000. 86.58% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

American Water Works Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:AWK opened at $150.42 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $29.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.07, a PEG ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.56. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a 52-week low of $120.57 and a 52-week high of $153.69. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $136.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $132.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.39.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $2.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.04 by ($0.04). American Water Works had a net margin of 21.26% and a return on equity of 10.14%. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.94 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 6.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Water Works Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 12th will be paid a $0.8950 dividend. This represents a $3.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 12th. American Water Works’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 62.05%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on AWK. Wall Street Zen upgraded American Water Works from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of American Water Works from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, November 2nd. UBS Group lowered shares of American Water Works from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $153.00 to $162.00 in a research note on Friday. Huntington lowered shares of American Water Works from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating on shares of American Water Works in a report on Thursday, July 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.14.

American Water Works Profile

American Water Works Company, Inc is a U.S. water and wastewater utility that provides services to residential, commercial, industrial, and public-sector customers. Its operations include treating and distributing drinking water, collecting and treating wastewater, and maintaining the infrastructure needed to deliver those services.

The company operates regulated water and wastewater utilities across multiple states, serving communities in regions including the Northeast, Midwest, and South.