Wells Fargo & Company Issues Positive Forecast for American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) Stock Price

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) had its price objective increased by equities research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $133.00 to $142.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price indicates a potential downside of 1.68% from the company’s current price.

AWK has been the subject of a number of other research reports. UBS Group upgraded shares of American Water Works from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $151.00 to $155.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of American Water Works from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of American Water Works from $147.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.86.

American Water Works Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of AWK opened at $144.43 on Thursday. American Water Works has a 1-year low of $113.34 and a 1-year high of $152.07. The company has a 50-day moving average of $129.24 and a 200 day moving average of $134.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.80, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.39 and a quick ratio of 0.35.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The utilities provider reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.09. American Water Works had a net margin of 22.44% and a return on equity of 10.29%. The company had revenue of $1.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.11 billion. On average, research analysts expect that American Water Works will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. IHT Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of American Water Works by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,424 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $938,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in American Water Works by 31.7% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 370 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Brookfield Corp ON increased its stake in American Water Works by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Brookfield Corp ON now owns 32,601 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,768,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its stake in American Water Works by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $250,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its stake in shares of American Water Works by 29.0% in the fourth quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.