HMV Wealth Advisors LLC Buys New Shares in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK)

HMV Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,735 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $340,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AWK. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in American Water Works by 31.7% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 370 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in American Water Works by 2.2% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 433,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $63,401,000 after buying an additional 9,427 shares during the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in American Water Works by 11.4% during the third quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,920 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $281,000 after buying an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC acquired a new position in American Water Works during the third quarter worth $301,000. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in American Water Works by 1.1% during the third quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 31,280 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,574,000 after buying an additional 352 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AWK has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of American Water Works from $133.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of American Water Works from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of American Water Works from $147.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of American Water Works from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $151.00 to $155.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, American Water Works presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.86.

American Water Works Price Performance

AWK opened at $144.43 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $28.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.80, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.69. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $129.24 and a 200 day moving average of $134.54. 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 Company, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $113.34 and a fifty-two week high of $152.07.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The utilities provider reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.20 billion during 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, research analysts expect that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

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.