Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Acquires 127 Shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK)

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 100.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 254 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 127 shares during the quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $31,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH raised its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 6.0% during the first quarter. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH now owns 31,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,831,000 after acquiring an additional 1,766 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of American Water Works by 1.2% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,143,437 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $261,949,000 after acquiring an additional 25,887 shares during the last quarter. Claro Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of American Water Works by 50.1% in the first quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 5,712 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $698,000 after acquiring an additional 1,907 shares during the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of American Water Works by 6.3% in the first quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 2,712 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $331,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirador Capital Partners LP grew its stake in shares of American Water Works by 8.6% in the first quarter. Mirador Capital Partners LP now owns 7,399 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $904,000 after acquiring an additional 586 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AWK has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group increased their target price on American Water Works from $124.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, May 13th. StockNews.com cut American Water Works from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, American Water Works presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.33.

American Water Works Stock Performance

Shares of American Water Works stock traded up $0.93 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $128.69. 248,892 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,371,435. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.79. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a 1 year low of $113.34 and a 1 year high of $151.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.93, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.67. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $129.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $125.52.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $962.30 million. American Water Works had a net margin of 22.27% and a return on equity of 9.74%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.91 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.24 EPS for the current year.

American Water Works Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 14th were given a $0.765 dividend. This represents a $3.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.38%. This is a boost from American Water Works’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 13th. American Water Works’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.07%.

American Water Works Company 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.