American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Stake Trimmed by Swiss National Bank

Swiss National Bank lowered its stake in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 608,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 17,300 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $80,356,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AWK. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in American Water Works by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 96,987 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,010,000 after purchasing an additional 669 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its stake in American Water Works by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 36,831 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,561,000 after purchasing an additional 4,909 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its stake in American Water Works by 39.7% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 43,782 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,422,000 after purchasing an additional 12,433 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in American Water Works by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,624,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $201,154,000 after purchasing an additional 137,006 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. increased its stake in American Water Works by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 95,633 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,842,000 after purchasing an additional 2,900 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on AWK shares. Evercore ISI cut American Water Works from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $160.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Friday, February 16th. StockNews.com cut American Water Works from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd.

Insider Activity at American Water Works

In related news, EVP Melanie M. Kennedy sold 843 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now 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 available at this link. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

American Water Works Trading Up 2.2 %

NYSE:AWK opened at $128.75 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.59. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $113.34 and a fifty-two week high of $151.24. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $119.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $124.35. The stock has a market cap of $25.08 billion, a PE ratio of 26.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.62.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.98 by ($0.03). American Water Works had a net margin of 22.27% and a return on equity of 9.74%. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $962.30 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.91 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Water Works Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 14th will be paid a $0.765 dividend. This is a boost from American Water Works’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 13th. This represents a $3.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.38%. American Water Works’s payout ratio is presently 57.40%.

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.