Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Lowers Holdings in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. trimmed its holdings in American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) by 6.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,469 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 318 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in American Water Works were worth $556,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in AWK. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of American Water Works by 1.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,503,553 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,682,280,000 after buying an additional 214,082 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of American Water Works by 1.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,564,193 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $665,163,000 after buying an additional 43,754 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position 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 worth $553,687,000 after buying an additional 477,411 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of American Water Works by 120.7% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,174,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $395,180,000 after buying an additional 1,736,258 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of American Water Works by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,418,102 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $300,739,000 after buying an additional 125,128 shares in the last quarter. 86.58% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on AWK. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on American Water Works from $129.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on 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 target price for the stock from $151.00 to $155.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, StockNews.com raised American Water Works from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $140.57.

American Water Works Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE AWK opened at $140.84 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $128.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $134.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.39 and a quick ratio of 0.35. American Water Works Company, Inc. has a 1-year low of $113.34 and a 1-year high of $152.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.13, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.69.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The utilities provider reported $1.22 EPS 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.11 billion. American Water Works had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 22.44%. As a group, research analysts expect that American Water Works Company, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

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.