Altshuler Shaham Ltd Has $265,000 Holdings in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK)

Altshuler Shaham Ltd cut its holdings in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 10.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 224 shares during the period. Altshuler Shaham Ltd’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $265,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Townsend & Associates Inc grew its stake in American Water Works by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc now owns 14,630 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,784,000 after buying an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in American Water Works by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,045,002 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $137,930,000 after buying an additional 24,661 shares in the last quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System grew its stake in American Water Works by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 178,599 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $23,573,000 after buying an additional 2,189 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC grew its stake in American Water Works by 71.1% during the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 22,558 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,977,000 after buying an additional 9,376 shares in the last quarter. Finally, W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. grew its stake in American Water Works by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. now owns 2,282 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $301,000 after buying an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. 86.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Melanie M. Kennedy sold 843 shares of American Water Works stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.59, for a total transaction of $100,814.37. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,240 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,942,141.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

American Water Works Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE AWK traded up $1.51 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $134.38. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,300,407 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,494,992. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $120.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $124.68. The stock has a market cap of $26.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.62. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a 52 week low of $113.34 and a 52 week high of $151.24. 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 (NYSE:AWK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.95 EPS 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 company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $962.30 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.91 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.765 per share. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.28%. This is an increase from American Water Works’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 13th. American Water Works’s payout ratio is currently 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.