AWK vs. CWT, AWR, SJW, MSEX, YORW, CWCO, ARTNA, CDZI, WTRG, and SBS
Should you be buying American Water Works stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of American Water Works include California Water Service Group (CWT), American States Water (AWR), SJW Group (SJW), Middlesex Water (MSEX), York Water (YORW), Consolidated Water (CWCO), Artesian Resources (ARTNA), Cadiz (CDZI), Essential Utilities (WTRG), and Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP (SBS). These companies are all part of the "water supply" industry.
American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) and California Water Service Group (NYSE:CWT) are both utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, risk, media sentiment, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.
American Water Works pays an annual dividend of $3.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. California Water Service Group pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. American Water Works pays out 62.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. California Water Service Group pays out 44.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.
American Water Works has higher revenue and earnings than California Water Service Group. California Water Service Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Water Works, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
American Water Works currently has a consensus target price of $141.33, indicating a potential upside of 10.20%. California Water Service Group has a consensus target price of $54.25, indicating a potential upside of 13.99%. Given California Water Service Group's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe California Water Service Group is more favorable than American Water Works.
In the previous week, American Water Works had 11 more articles in the media than California Water Service Group. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for American Water Works and 2 mentions for California Water Service Group. California Water Service Group's average media sentiment score of 1.41 beat American Water Works' score of 1.26 indicating that California Water Service Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
American Water Works has a beta of 0.67, indicating that its stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, California Water Service Group has a beta of 0.48, indicating that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.
86.6% of American Water Works shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.8% of California Water Service Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of American Water Works shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of California Water Service Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
American Water Works received 214 more outperform votes than California Water Service Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.78% of users gave American Water Works an outperform vote while only 53.79% of users gave California Water Service Group an outperform vote.
American Water Works has a net margin of 22.27% compared to California Water Service Group's net margin of 15.42%. California Water Service Group's return on equity of 10.09% beat American Water Works' return on equity.
Summary
American Water Works beats California Water Service Group on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AWK and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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