American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Shares Sold by Barrett & Company Inc.

Barrett & Company Inc. reduced its stake in shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 12.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,185 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 309 shares during the quarter. Barrett & Company Inc.’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $320,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AWK. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its position in American Water Works by 12,816.0% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 1,464,674 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $189,177,000 after purchasing an additional 1,453,334 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new stake in shares of American Water Works in the first quarter valued at $108,688,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of American Water Works by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,648,326 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,012,272,000 after acquiring an additional 624,977 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in American Water Works by 14,944.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 537,987 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $786,750,000 after purchasing an additional 534,411 shares during the period. Finally, Nuance Investments LLC grew its position in American Water Works by 70.3% during the 1st quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 958,309 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $117,115,000 after purchasing an additional 395,684 shares in the last quarter. 86.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AWK has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and set a $140.00 price target on shares of American Water Works in a report on Friday, September 20th. Wolfe Research upgraded American Water Works to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of American Water Works in a report on Monday, October 7th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $124.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $164.00 target price on shares of American Water Works in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Mizuho downgraded American Water Works from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $131.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, American Water Works presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $140.00.

American Water Works Price Performance

Shares of American Water Works stock traded up $1.86 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $139.52. 62,615 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,191,467. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $143.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $135.82. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a 52 week low of $113.34 and a 52 week high of $150.68. The firm has a market cap of $27.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.92, a PEG ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.58.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. American Water Works had a return on equity of 9.60% and a net margin of 21.93%. American Water Works’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. Research analysts forecast that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.27 earnings per share for the current year.

American Water Works Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 13th were paid a dividend of $0.765 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 13th. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.19%. American Water Works’s payout ratio is 62.07%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Martha Clark Goss sold 710 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.85, for a total transaction of $101,423.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 36,880 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,268,308. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

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.