American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Shares Sold by Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. cut its stake in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 16.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 87,921 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 16,981 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $10,945,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in American Water Works in the fourth quarter valued at $294,524,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 1,736,258 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment increased its holdings in American Water Works by 4,227.0% during the 3rd quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 711,927 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $104,000 after acquiring an additional 695,474 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in American Water Works during the fourth quarter worth about $71,120,000. Finally, Amundi lifted its holdings 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 valued at $553,687,000 after purchasing an additional 477,411 shares in the last quarter. 86.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on AWK shares. 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 research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on American Water Works from $133.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of American Water Works from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $141.86.

American Water Works Price Performance

AWK opened at $146.28 on Friday. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a 1 year low of $113.34 and a 1 year high of $152.07. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $133.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $134.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.52 billion, a PE ratio of 27.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.39.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $1.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.11 billion. American Water Works had a net margin of 22.44% and a return on equity of 10.29%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect 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.