American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Position Increased by Creative Planning

Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 35,523 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 572 shares during the period. Creative Planning’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $5,195,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AWK. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in American Water Works by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,648,326 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,012,272,000 after acquiring an additional 624,977 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its position in shares of American Water Works by 153.8% in the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 13,640 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,667,000 after acquiring an additional 8,266 shares during the period. Duality Advisers LP boosted its position in shares of American Water Works by 202.2% in the first quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 46,633 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,699,000 after acquiring an additional 31,203 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in American Water Works by 21.6% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 31,283 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,023,000 after purchasing an additional 5,564 shares during the period. Finally, Howland Capital Management LLC lifted its position in American Water Works by 20.0% in the first quarter. Howland Capital Management LLC now owns 163,185 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $19,943,000 after purchasing an additional 27,200 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Martha Clark Goss sold 710 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.85, for a total value of $101,423.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 36,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,268,308. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AWK. Mizuho cut American Water Works from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $131.00 to $140.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Wolfe Research upgraded American Water Works to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and set a $140.00 price objective on shares of American Water Works in a report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $164.00 target price on shares of American Water Works in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered American Water Works from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $127.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $140.00.

American Water Works Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AWK opened at $139.80 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $143.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $27.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.58. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a one year low of $113.34 and a one year high of $150.68.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.05). American Water Works had a return on equity of 9.60% and a net margin of 21.93%. The business had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. American Water Works’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.27 EPS for the current year.

American Water Works Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th were issued a $0.765 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 13th. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.19%. American Water Works’s payout ratio is presently 62.07%.

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.