American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.77

American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 31st, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.765 per share by the utilities provider on Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.15%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 13th.

American Water Works has raised its dividend by an average of 8.9% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 17 years. American Water Works has a dividend payout ratio of 54.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect American Water Works to earn $5.68 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.06 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 53.9%.

American Water Works Stock Performance

NYSE:AWK opened at $142.28 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.72 billion, a PE ratio of 28.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 0.67. American Water Works has a twelve month low of $113.34 and a twelve month high of $149.00. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $135.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $127.12.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. American Water Works had a net margin of 21.93% and a return on equity of 9.60%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.44 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that American Water Works will post 5.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.