American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.05 EPS

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The utilities provider reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.05), Briefing.com reports. American Water Works had a net margin of 21.93% and a return on equity of 9.66%. The company had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. American Water Works’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. American Water Works updated its FY24 guidance to $5.25-5.30 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to 5.250-5.300 EPS.

American Water Works Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE AWK traded up $0.43 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $144.93. The stock had a trading volume of 385,583 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,293,112. The business’s 50 day moving average is $133.01 and its 200-day moving average is $126.41. The company has a market cap of $28.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.77, a PEG ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.67. American Water Works has a 52 week low of $113.34 and a 52 week high of $148.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26.

American Water Works Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th will be issued a $0.765 dividend. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 13th. American Water Works’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.07%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AWK has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of American Water Works from $124.00 to $139.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of American Water Works from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $127.00 to $138.00 in a report on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.17.

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.