StockNews.com Downgrades American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) to Sell

StockNews.com lowered shares of American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report published on Wednesday morning.

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

American Water Works Stock Performance

American Water Works stock opened at $118.52 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $120.43 and a 200-day moving average of $124.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.59. American Water Works has a 1 year low of $114.25 and a 1 year high of $153.43. The company has a market capitalization of $23.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.63.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The utilities provider reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. American Water Works had a net margin of 22.30% and a return on equity of 9.70%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.81 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that American Water Works will post 5.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other American Water Works news, EVP Melanie M. Kennedy sold 843 shares of American Water Works stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.59, for a total value 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 $1,942,141.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.08% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Water Works

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AWK. Norges Bank bought a new position in American Water Works during the fourth quarter valued at $275,476,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of American Water Works by 64,405.1% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,838,394 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $280,208,000 after acquiring an additional 1,835,544 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its holdings in American Water Works by 945.5% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,806,146 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $238,397,000 after acquiring an additional 1,633,389 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners bought a new stake in American Water Works in the 4th quarter valued at about $92,838,000. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in American Water Works by 11.5% during the second quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,114,273 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $730,062,000 after purchasing an additional 528,070 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

American Water Works Company 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.