Blue Square Asset Management LLC Decreases Stake in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK)

Blue Square Asset Management LLC lowered its holdings in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 86.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,792 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 11,861 shares during the quarter. Blue Square Asset Management LLC’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $219,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in shares of American Water Works by 945.5% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,806,146 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $238,397,000 after acquiring an additional 1,633,389 shares during the period. Parsifal Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of American Water Works in the fourth quarter worth about $44,441,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of American Water Works by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 94,996 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,539,000 after acquiring an additional 9,005 shares during the period. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in shares of American Water Works in the fourth quarter worth about $974,000. Finally, Humankind Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of American Water Works by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Humankind Investments LLC now owns 8,078 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,066,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on AWK. UBS Group increased their price target on American Water Works from $124.00 to $139.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, May 13th. StockNews.com downgraded American Water Works from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.80.

American Water Works Trading Up 3.0 %

AWK stock traded up $3.99 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $136.22. 1,243,255 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,347,358. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.85. The business has a 50 day moving average of $130.30 and a 200-day moving average of $125.43. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a 52-week low of $113.34 and a 52-week high of $151.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.71, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.67.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. 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 return on equity of 9.74% and a net margin of 22.27%. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $962.30 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.91 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Water Works Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 14th were issued a $0.765 dividend. This represents a $3.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. This is an increase from American Water Works’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 13th. American Water Works’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.07%.

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.