American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.03 EPS

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK - Get Free Report) released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The utilities provider reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.98 by ($0.03), Briefing.com reports. American Water Works had a net margin of 22.30% and a return on equity of 9.70%. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $962.30 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.91 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. American Water Works updated its FY24 guidance to $5.20-$5.30 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to 5.200-5.300 EPS.

American Water Works Stock Performance

Shares of AWK stock opened at $125.98 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $24.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.62. American Water Works has a 52 week low of $113.34 and a 52 week high of $151.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $119.33 and a 200-day moving average of $124.29.

American Water Works Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 14th will be given a dividend of $0.765 per share. This represents a $3.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 13th. This is an increase from American Water Works's previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. American Water Works's dividend payout ratio is currently 57.87%.

Insider Transactions at American Water Works

In related news, EVP Melanie M. Kennedy sold 843 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,942,141.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.08% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

American Water Works Company 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.