American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) Lowered to Sell Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on AWK. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of American Water Works from $147.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of American Water Works from $133.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of American Water Works from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $151.00 to $155.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.86.

American Water Works Price Performance

Shares of AWK opened at $140.90 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $27.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.14, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.69. American Water Works has a 1-year low of $113.34 and a 1-year high of $152.07. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $131.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $134.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The utilities provider reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. American Water Works had a net margin of 22.44% and a return on equity of 10.29%. On average, research analysts forecast that American Water Works will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Water Works

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. 111 Capital bought a new stake in shares of American Water Works in the fourth quarter valued at about $502,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of American Water Works by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 121,782 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $15,161,000 after acquiring an additional 4,933 shares during the period. PKO Investment Management Joint Stock Co bought a new stake in shares of American Water Works in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,123,000. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH boosted its position in shares of American Water Works by 294.0% in the fourth quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH now owns 8,629 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,074,000 after acquiring an additional 6,439 shares during the period. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in shares of American Water Works in the fourth quarter valued at about $37,313,000. Institutional investors own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

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.