WASHINGTON TRUST Co Lowers Holdings in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co decreased its holdings in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 12.0% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,227 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 303 shares during the period. WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $288,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,648,326 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,012,272,000 after purchasing an additional 624,977 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. lifted its position in American Water Works by 153.8% during the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 13,640 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,667,000 after acquiring an additional 8,266 shares in the last quarter. Duality Advisers LP lifted its position in American Water Works by 202.2% during the 1st quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 46,633 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,699,000 after acquiring an additional 31,203 shares in the last quarter. 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Parsifal Capital Management LP acquired a new position in American Water Works during the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,441,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AWK has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered American Water Works from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $127.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group upped their target price on American Water Works from $124.00 to $139.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.17.

American Water Works Stock Performance

Shares of AWK stock traded down $0.90 on Tuesday, hitting $141.66. 370,747 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,282,110. 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 company has a market capitalization of $27.60 billion, a PE ratio of 28.92, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 0.67. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a 1-year low of $113.34 and a 1-year high of $149.00. The company’s fifty day moving average is $135.26 and its 200 day moving average is $127.25.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion for 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 business’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Water Works Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.765 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 13th. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.16%. American Water Works’s payout ratio is currently 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.