American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Shares Purchased by PGGM Investments

PGGM Investments raised its position in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 20.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 89,950 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,363 shares during the quarter. PGGM Investments’ holdings in American Water Works were worth $11,198,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AWK. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in American Water Works by 120.7% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,174,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $395,180,000 after buying an additional 1,736,258 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment raised its position in shares of American Water Works by 4,227.0% in the 3rd quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 711,927 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $104,000 after purchasing an additional 695,474 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of American Water Works during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $71,120,000. Amundi increased its stake in shares of American Water Works by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 4,490,423 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $553,687,000 after buying an additional 477,411 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of American Water Works by 268.0% in the fourth quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 537,138 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $66,868,000 after buying an additional 391,166 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on AWK. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of American Water Works from $129.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com raised American Water Works from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on American Water Works from $147.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, UBS Group raised American Water Works from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $151.00 to $155.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $140.57.

American Water Works Trading Down 1.8 %

NYSE:AWK opened at $140.84 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.69. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $128.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $134.46. 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 Company, Inc. has a 12-month low of $113.34 and a 12-month high of $152.07.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The utilities provider reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. Equities research analysts predict that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

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.