American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning.

Separately, Evercore ISI cut shares of American Water Works from an outperform rating to an in-line rating and cut their price target for the company from $160.00 to $135.00 in a report on Friday, February 16th.

American Water Works Price Performance

AWK opened at $122.21 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $23.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.99, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.63. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $120.98 and a 200 day moving average of $125.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.65. American Water Works has a fifty-two week low of $114.25 and a fifty-two week high of $153.43.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The utilities provider reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.04. American Water Works had a net margin of 22.30% and a return on equity of 9.70%. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.81 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that American Water Works will post 5.23 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other American Water Works news, EVP Melanie M. Kennedy sold 843 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.59, for a total transaction of $100,814.37. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,240 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,942,141.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AWK. MV Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in American Water Works by 110.8% in the fourth quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 196 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in American Water Works in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Clear Street Markets LLC bought a new stake in American Water Works in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in American Water Works in the second quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Tyler Stone Wealth Management purchased a new stake in American Water Works in the second quarter worth $29,000. 86.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.