American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) Updates FY 2024 Earnings Guidance

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) issued an update on its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Wednesday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of 5.250-5.300 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of 5.250. The company issued revenue guidance of -. American Water Works also updated its FY 2025 guidance to 5.650-5.750 EPS.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on AWK shares. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $164.00 target price on shares of American Water Works in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and set a $140.00 price objective on shares of American Water Works in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of American Water Works in a research note on Monday, October 7th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $124.00 target price for the company. Mizuho cut shares of American Water Works from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $131.00 to $140.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised American Water Works to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $140.00.

American Water Works Stock Performance

Shares of AWK stock traded down $0.11 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $135.69. The company had a trading volume of 1,329,492 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,193,866. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $142.85 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $136.10. The company has a market capitalization of $26.44 billion, a PE ratio of 27.64, a PEG ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.58. American Water Works has a one year low of $113.34 and a one year high of $150.68.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.05). American Water Works had a return on equity of 9.60% and a net margin of 21.93%. The company had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.44 EPS. American Water Works’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that American Water Works will post 5.27 earnings per share for the current year.

American Water Works Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.765 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.26%. American Water Works’s payout ratio is 62.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Martha Clark Goss sold 710 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.85, for a total transaction of $101,423.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 36,880 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,268,308. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

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.