American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) Lifted to Hold at StockNews.com

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

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

American Water Works Price Performance

Shares of AWK opened at $122.21 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $121.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $125.78. American Water Works has a fifty-two week low of $114.25 and a fifty-two week high of $153.43. The stock has a market cap of $23.80 billion, a PE ratio of 24.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.63. 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 (NYSE:AWK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The utilities provider reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. American Water Works had a return on equity of 9.70% and a net margin of 22.30%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.81 EPS. Analysts anticipate that American Water Works will post 5.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Melanie M. Kennedy sold 843 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were 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 owns 16,240 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,942,141.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AWK. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in shares of American Water Works during the 4th quarter valued at about $974,000. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in American Water Works during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $363,000. Fairman Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of American Water Works in the fourth quarter worth $42,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd raised its position in shares of American Water Works by 269.3% during the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 13,049 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,722,000 after purchasing an additional 9,516 shares during the period. Finally, Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of American Water Works during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Hedge funds and other 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.