Chesapeake Capital Corp IL Purchases New Position in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK)

Chesapeake Capital Corp IL acquired a new position in shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,963 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $618,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted 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 purchasing an additional 1,736,258 shares during the period. Groupama Asset Managment lifted its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 4,227.0% during the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 711,927 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $104,000 after buying an additional 695,474 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of American Water Works in the fourth quarter valued at about $71,120,000. Amundi grew 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 valued at $553,687,000 after acquiring an additional 477,411 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC increased its position in American Water Works by 268.0% during the fourth quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 537,138 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $66,868,000 after acquiring an additional 391,166 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

American Water Works Price Performance

Shares of AWK stock opened at $144.67 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $130.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $134.49. The company has a market cap of $28.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a twelve month low of $113.34 and a twelve month high of $152.07.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last issued its 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 firm 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%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AWK has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of American Water Works from $147.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group upgraded American Water Works from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $151.00 to $155.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on American Water Works from $133.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, StockNews.com raised American Water Works from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.86.

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.