American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.77

American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 1st, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.765 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $3.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.45%. This is an increase from American Water Works's previous quarterly dividend of $0.71.

American Water Works has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.9% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 16 consecutive years. American Water Works has a payout ratio of 49.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect American Water Works to earn $5.68 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.83 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 49.8%.

American Water Works Stock Performance

Shares of American Water Works stock traded up $2.80 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $125.12. 1,994,650 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,471,066. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.65. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $119.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $124.27. American Water Works has a 52-week low of $113.34 and a 52-week high of $151.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.59, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.63.

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The utilities provider reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. American Water Works had a net margin of 22.30% and a return on equity of 9.70%. The firm's revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.81 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that American Water Works will post 5.24 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Melanie M. Kennedy sold 843 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.59, for a total value of $100,814.37. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,240 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,942,141.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.08% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on AWK. Evercore ISI lowered shares of American Water Works from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $160.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Friday, February 16th. StockNews.com lowered shares of American Water Works from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd.

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.