American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.03 EPS

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) announced its earnings results on Wednesday. The utilities provider reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by ($0.03), Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $962.30 million. American Water Works had a net margin of 22.27% and a return on equity of 9.79%. American Water Works’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.91 EPS. American Water Works updated its FY24 guidance to $5.20-$5.30 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to 5.200-5.300 EPS.

American Water Works Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE:AWK traded up $2.80 during trading on Friday, reaching $128.75. 1,710,455 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,497,040. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $119.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $124.29. American Water Works has a 12-month low of $113.34 and a 12-month high of $151.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market cap of $25.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.62.

American Water Works Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.765 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 13th. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.38%. This is a positive change from American Water Works’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. American Water Works’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 57.40%.

Insider Transactions at American Water Works

In other American Water Works news, EVP Melanie M. Kennedy sold 843 shares of American Water Works stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.59, for a total value of $100,814.37. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,240 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,942,141.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on AWK shares. StockNews.com lowered American Water Works from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Evercore ISI cut shares of American Water Works from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $160.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Friday, February 16th.

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.