American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Holdings Decreased by LGT Group Foundation

LGT Group Foundation reduced its stake in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 5.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,747 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 313 shares during the period. LGT Group Foundation’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $742,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in American Water Works by 2.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,648,326 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,012,272,000 after acquiring an additional 624,977 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its stake in American Water Works by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 6,902,257 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $890,422,000 after purchasing an additional 247,745 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of American Water Works by 1.2% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,143,437 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $261,949,000 after acquiring an additional 25,887 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of American Water Works during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $275,476,000. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 1,633,389 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on American Water Works from $124.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of American Water Works from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $127.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.17.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Martha Clark Goss sold 710 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.85, for a total value of $101,423.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 36,880 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,268,308. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

American Water Works Trading Up 1.4 %

American Water Works stock opened at $145.97 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $140.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $130.00. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a 52 week low of $113.34 and a 52 week high of $149.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.44 billion, a PE ratio of 29.61, a PEG ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.64.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.05). American Water Works had a net margin of 21.93% and a return on equity of 9.60%. The company had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. American Water Works’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.26 earnings per share for the current year.

American Water Works Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 13th were given a $0.765 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 13th. This represents a $3.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. American Water Works’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 62.07%.

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.