American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Shares Sold by DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main

DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main cut its stake in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 12.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 523,324 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 71,813 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $65,149,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of American Water Works by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,107,225 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,125,598,000 after purchasing an additional 217,582 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of American Water Works by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,671,050 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $579,981,000 after acquiring an additional 106,857 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 4,490,423 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $553,687,000 after purchasing an additional 477,411 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in American Water Works by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,357,726 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $418,003,000 after purchasing an additional 335,683 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 120.7% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,174,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $395,180,000 after buying an additional 1,736,258 shares during the last quarter. 86.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AWK has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of American Water Works from $142.00 to $147.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays started coverage on American Water Works in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. They set an “underweight” rating and a $138.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded American Water Works from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday. UBS Group downgraded shares of American Water Works from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on American Water Works from $147.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $143.22.

American Water Works Trading Down 0.8 %

NYSE AWK opened at $148.06 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $144.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $134.95. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a 52-week low of $118.74 and a 52-week high of $155.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.73.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. American Water Works had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 22.44%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.95 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

American Water Works Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.8275 per share. This is an increase from American Water Works’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $3.31 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. American Water Works’s payout ratio is currently 60.29%.

American Water Works 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.