American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Stake Decreased by Phoenix Financial Ltd.

Phoenix Financial Ltd. lessened its holdings in shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 8.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,690 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 242 shares during the period. Phoenix Financial Ltd.’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $399,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AWK. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of American Water Works during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $294,524,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 24.1% during the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,532,131 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $668,566,000 after buying an additional 878,951 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 38.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,695,734 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $335,592,000 after buying an additional 747,316 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in American Water Works by 20,534.0% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 615,306 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $90,770,000 after purchasing an additional 612,324 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in American Water Works by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,142,465 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $391,205,000 after purchasing an additional 414,568 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other American Water Works news, CAO Melissa K. Wikle sold 2,825 shares of American Water Works stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.28, for a total transaction of $404,766.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 7,572 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,084,916.16. The trade was a 27.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.11% of the company’s stock.

American Water Works Trading Down 0.2%

American Water Works stock opened at $140.29 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market cap of $27.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.69. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a 1 year low of $118.74 and a 1 year high of $155.50. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $141.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $138.57.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.06 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. American Water Works had a return on equity of 10.35% and a net margin of 22.24%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.95 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Water Works Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were given a dividend of $0.8275 per share. This represents a $3.31 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.36%. This is a boost from American Water Works’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. American Water Works’s payout ratio is presently 60.29%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on AWK shares. Barclays dropped their target price on American Water Works from $138.00 to $128.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on American Water Works from $139.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on American Water Works from $142.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $156.00 target price (up previously from $154.00) on shares of American Water Works in a report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut American Water Works from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, American Water Works has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.67.

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.