Blue Barn Wealth LLC Sells 321 Shares of American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK)

Blue Barn Wealth LLC lowered its stake in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 14.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,879 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 321 shares during the quarter. Blue Barn Wealth LLC’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $234,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in American Water Works by 120.7% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,174,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $395,180,000 after acquiring an additional 1,736,258 shares during the period. Groupama Asset Managment increased its holdings in shares of American Water Works by 4,227.0% in the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 711,927 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $104,000 after purchasing an additional 695,474 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of American Water Works in the fourth quarter worth $71,120,000. Confluence Investment Management LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $66,868,000 after buying an additional 391,166 shares during the period. Finally, Zimmer Partners LP purchased a new position in American Water Works during the third quarter worth about $43,872,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AWK has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on American Water Works from $147.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of American Water Works from $129.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of American Water Works from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $151.00 to $155.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $140.57.

American Water Works Stock Performance

NYSE AWK opened at $137.83 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $126.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $134.37. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a 12-month low of $113.34 and a 12-month high of $150.68. The firm has a market cap of $26.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.57, a PEG 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 (NYSE:AWK) last issued its 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.11 billion. American Water Works had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 22.44%. On average, equities analysts forecast that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

American Water Works Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a dividend of $0.765 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.22%. American Water Works’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.77%.

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.