American Water Works (AWK) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

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. It also provides water and wastewater services on military installations; and undertakes contracts with municipal customers, primarily to operate and manage water and wastewater facilities, as well as offers other related services. In addition, the company operates approximately 80 surface water treatment plants; 540 groundwater treatment plants; 175 wastewater treatment plants; 53,700 miles of transmission, distribution, and collection mains and pipes; 1,200 groundwater wells; 1,700 water and wastewater pumping stations; 1,100 treated water storage facilities; and 74 dams. The company was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Camden, New Jersey.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $136.77 to $138.58
• 50-Day Range: $132.11 to $147.52
• 52-Week Range: $113.34 to $150.68
• Volume: 593,758 shs
• Average Volume: 1.21 million shs
• Market Capitalization: $26.69 billion
• P/E Ratio: 27.12
• Dividend Yield: 2.23%
• Price Target: $142.29
• Consensus Rating: Reduce

American Water Works Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

American Water Works scored higher than 96% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 6th out of 90 stocks in the utilities sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 1.9 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Reduce

Consensus Rating

American Water Works has received a consensus rating of Reduce. The company's average rating score is 1.88, and is based on 2 buy ratings, 3 hold ratings, and 3 sell ratings.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

American Water Works has been the subject of 6 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 2.5 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 7.77%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for American Water Works are expected to grow by 7.77% in the coming year, from $5.28 to $5.69 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of American Water Works is 27.12, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 128.76.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of American Water Works is 27.12, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Utilities sector average P/E ratio of about 80.78.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

American Water Works has a PEG Ratio of 3.22. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

American Water Works has a P/B Ratio of 2.58. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 3.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

2.07% of the outstanding shares of American Water Works have been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

American Water Works has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 3.6, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in American Water Works has recently increased by 9.78%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 4.2 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Strong

Dividend Yield

American Water Works pays a meaningful dividend of 2.21%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

American Water Works has been increasing its dividend for 17 years.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of American Water Works is 60.59%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, American Water Works will have a dividend payout ratio of 53.78% next year. This indicates that American Water Works will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

Sustainability and ESG

• Score: 4.3 / 5
• Environmental Score: 1.99

Percentage of Shares Shorted

2.07% of the outstanding shares of American Water Works have been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

American Water Works has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 3.6, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in American Water Works has recently increased by 9.78%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

News and Social Media

• Score: 2.7 / 5
• News Sentiment: 0.85

News Sentiment

American Water Works has a news sentiment score of 0.85. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.49 average news sentiment score of Utilities companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 29 news articles for American Water Works this week, compared to 13 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

Only 9 people have searched for AWK on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -50% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

Only 6 people have added American Water Works to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -14% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 2.5 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, American Water Works insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $101,424.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

Only 0.08% of the stock of American Water Works is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

86.58% of the stock of American Water Works is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

AWK Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

How have AWK shares performed this year?

American Water Works' stock was trading at $131.99 at the beginning of 2024. Since then, AWK shares have increased by 3.8% and is now trading at $136.94.
View the best growth stocks for 2024 here.

How were American Water Works' earnings last quarter?

American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) announced its quarterly 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. The company's quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year.
Read the conference call transcript.

Who are American Water Works' major shareholders?

Top institutional investors of American Water Works include State Street Corp (5.90%), Impax Asset Management Group plc (2.91%), Geode Capital Management LLC (2.34%) and UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC (1.39%). Insiders that own company stock include Martha Clark Goss, Melanie M Kennedy and Michael Marberry.
View institutional ownership trends.

How do I buy shares of American Water Works?

Shares of AWK stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.
Compare Top Brokerages Here.

What other stocks do shareholders of American Water Works own?

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that American Water Works investors own include Waste Connections (WCN), The RMR Group (RMR), iShares Micro-Cap ETF (IWC), DiamondRock Hospitality (DRH), AUO (AUOTY), Triple Flag Precious Metals (TFPM) and Voyager Therapeutics (VYGR).

Company Calendar

• Last Earnings: 7/31/2024
• Ex-Dividend for 9/4 Dividend: 8/13/2024
• Dividend Payable: 9/04/2024
• Ex-Dividend for 12/3 Dividend: 11/12/2024
• Today: 11/29/2024
• Dividend Payable: 12/03/2024
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2024
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 2/12/2025

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Utilities
• Industry: Water supply
• Sub-Industry: Water Utilities
• Current Symbol: NYSE:AWK
• CUSIP: 03042010
• CIK: 1410636
• Web: www.amwater.com
• Phone: (856) 955-4001
• Fax: 856-346-8360
• Employees: 6,500
• Year Founded: 1886

Price Target and Rating

• Average Stock Price Target: $142.29
• High Stock Price Target: $164.00
• Low Stock Price Target: $124.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +2.9%
• Consensus Rating: Reduce
• Rating Score (0-4): 1.88
• Research Coverage: 8 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Most Recent Fiscal Year): $5.05
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 27.39
• Forward P/E Ratio: 26.20
• P/E Growth: 3.18
• Net Income: $944 million
• Net Margins: 21.77%
• Pretax Margin: 28.22%
• Return on Equity: 9.75%
• Return on Assets: 3.16%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 1.21
• Current Ratio: 0.58
• Quick Ratio: 0.53

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $4.52 billion
• Price / Sales: 5.97
• Cash Flow: $8.56 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 16.16
• Book Value: $53.17 per share
• Price / Book: 2.60

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 194,894,000
• Free Float: 194,738,000
• Market Cap: $26.96 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.70