AWK vs. CWT, AWR, SJW, MSEX, YORW, CWCO, ARTNA, CDZI, WTRG, and SBS
Should you be buying American Water Works stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of American Water Works include California Water Service Group (CWT), American States Water (AWR), SJW Group (SJW), Middlesex Water (MSEX), York Water (YORW), Consolidated Water (CWCO), Artesian Resources (ARTNA), Cadiz (CDZI), Essential Utilities (WTRG), and Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP (SBS). These companies are all part of the "water supply" industry.
California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) and American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) are both utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, media sentiment, community ranking, earnings and institutional ownership.
82.8% of California Water Service Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.6% of American Water Works shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of California Water Service Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of American Water Works shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
California Water Service Group presently has a consensus price target of $54.25, suggesting a potential upside of 8.74%. American Water Works has a consensus price target of $141.33, suggesting a potential upside of 8.08%. Given American Water Works' higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe California Water Service Group is more favorable than American Water Works.
California Water Service Group pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. American Water Works pays an annual dividend of $3.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. California Water Service Group pays out 44.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. American Water Works pays out 62.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. California Water Service Group has raised its dividend for 58 consecutive years and American Water Works has raised its dividend for 17 consecutive years.
American Water Works received 214 more outperform votes than California Water Service Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.78% of users gave American Water Works an outperform vote while only 53.79% of users gave California Water Service Group an outperform vote.
California Water Service Group has a beta of 0.47, suggesting that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Water Works has a beta of 0.62, suggesting that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.
American Water Works has higher revenue and earnings than California Water Service Group. California Water Service Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Water Works, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, American Water Works had 8 more articles in the media than California Water Service Group. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for American Water Works and 4 mentions for California Water Service Group. California Water Service Group's average media sentiment score of 0.82 beat American Water Works' score of 0.49 indicating that American Water Works is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
American Water Works has a net margin of 22.27% compared to American Water Works' net margin of 15.42%. American Water Works' return on equity of 10.09% beat California Water Service Group's return on equity.
Summary
American Water Works beats California Water Service Group on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AWK and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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