American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Shares Sold by New York State Teachers Retirement System

New York State Teachers Retirement System trimmed its holdings in shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK - Free Report) by 13.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 182,708 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 27,584 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.09% of American Water Works worth $23,599,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AWK. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in American Water Works by 2.6% during 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 during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in 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 valued at $261,949,000 after buying an additional 25,887 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of American Water Works during the fourth quarter worth $275,476,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its position in American Water Works by 945.5% during 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 period. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,320,042 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $174,232,000 after purchasing an additional 86,234 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.58% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut American Water Works from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $127.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group boosted 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $141.17.

American Water Works Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AWK traded up $0.40 on Friday, reaching $140.42. The company's stock had a trading volume of 521,426 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,252,906. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a 52-week low of $113.34 and a 52-week high of $149.00. The stock's 50-day moving average is $137.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $128.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.48, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 0.67.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results 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 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 posted $1.44 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.25 EPS for the current year.

American Water Works Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th will be paid a $0.765 dividend. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 13th. American Water Works's payout ratio is 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.