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American Water Works (AWK) Competitors

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$145.96 +0.09 (+0.06%)
Closing price 08/22/2025 03:59 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$146.22 +0.27 (+0.18%)
As of 08/22/2025 07:14 PM Eastern
Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more.

AWK vs. CWCO, GWRS, MSEX, AWR, CMS, CWT, WTRG, HTO, YORW, and ARTNA

Should you be buying American Water Works stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of American Water Works include Consolidated Water (CWCO), Global Water Resources (GWRS), Middlesex Water (MSEX), American States Water (AWR), CMS Energy (CMS), California Water Service Group (CWT), Essential Utilities (WTRG), H2O America (HTO), York Water (YORW), and Artesian Resources (ARTNA). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.

American Water Works vs. Its Competitors

Consolidated Water (NASDAQ:CWCO) and American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

American Water Works has higher revenue and earnings than Consolidated Water. Consolidated Water 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.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Consolidated Water$129.10M4.14$28.24M$1.6220.72
American Water Works$4.68B6.08$1.05B$5.5526.30

In the previous week, American Water Works had 25 more articles in the media than Consolidated Water. MarketBeat recorded 29 mentions for American Water Works and 4 mentions for Consolidated Water. American Water Works' average media sentiment score of 1.44 beat Consolidated Water's score of 0.94 indicating that American Water Works is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Consolidated Water
1 Very Positive mention(s)
2 Positive mention(s)
0 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
American Water Works
25 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
3 Neutral mention(s)
1 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

55.2% of Consolidated Water shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.6% of American Water Works shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.3% of Consolidated Water shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of American Water Works shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Consolidated Water pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. American Water Works pays an annual dividend of $3.31 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Consolidated Water pays out 34.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. American Water Works pays out 59.6% 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. Consolidated Water has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and American Water Works has increased its dividend for 18 consecutive years. American Water Works is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Consolidated Water presently has a consensus price target of $40.00, suggesting a potential upside of 19.19%. American Water Works has a consensus price target of $143.30, suggesting a potential downside of 1.82%. Given Consolidated Water's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Consolidated Water is more favorable than American Water Works.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Consolidated Water
0 Sell rating(s)
0 Hold rating(s)
1 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
3.00
American Water Works
3 Sell rating(s)
6 Hold rating(s)
2 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
1.91

Consolidated Water has a beta of 0.53, meaning that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Water Works has a beta of 0.65, meaning that its stock price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500.

American Water Works has a net margin of 21.91% compared to Consolidated Water's net margin of 12.24%. American Water Works' return on equity of 10.34% beat Consolidated Water's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Consolidated Water12.24% 7.77% 6.84%
American Water Works 21.91%10.34%3.29%

Summary

American Water Works beats Consolidated Water on 14 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

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.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This 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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AWK vs. The Competition

MetricAmerican Water WorksUTIL IndustryUtilities SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$28.52B$7.42B$16.59B$21.32B
Dividend Yield2.26%2.66%5.45%3.51%
P/E Ratio26.3018.6015.5429.14
Price / Sales6.084.55374.4755.22
Price / Cash15.4913.3219.2024.09
Price / Book2.672.182.185.47
Net Income$1.05B$420.94M$751.46M$992.74M
7 Day Performance1.51%2.11%1.05%2.68%
1 Month Performance2.96%3.26%0.24%1.53%
1 Year Performance3.94%-0.13%319.44%10.77%

American Water Works Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
AWK
American Water Works
4.8068 of 5 stars
$145.96
+0.1%
$143.30
-1.8%
+4.2%$28.52B$4.68B26.306,700News Coverage
Positive News
CWCO
Consolidated Water
4.4675 of 5 stars
$32.44
+0.2%
$40.00
+23.3%
+26.7%$516.77M$133.97M20.02200
GWRS
Global Water Resources
1.9184 of 5 stars
$9.87
+0.1%
N/A-15.6%$271.13M$52.69M44.8790News Coverage
Short Interest ↑
Analyst Revision
MSEX
Middlesex Water
4.0126 of 5 stars
$52.23
-1.4%
$61.00
+16.8%
-8.2%$941.19M$191.88M21.58350News Coverage
Positive News
AWR
American States Water
4.3138 of 5 stars
$74.04
-1.2%
$77.50
+4.7%
-6.0%$2.85B$615.96M22.64810Positive News
CMS
CMS Energy
3.7922 of 5 stars
$72.09
-0.3%
$77.25
+7.2%
+8.7%$21.58B$7.52B21.338,324News Coverage
Positive News
CWT
California Water Service Group
4.5758 of 5 stars
$46.12
-0.8%
$56.00
+21.4%
-12.1%$2.75B$990.69M20.141,278Analyst Revision
WTRG
Essential Utilities
4.792 of 5 stars
$38.68
-1.3%
$44.50
+15.0%
+1.4%$10.85B$2.09B16.603,291Positive News
Analyst Downgrade
HTO
H2O America
2.9828 of 5 stars
$49.73
-0.6%
$56.50
+13.6%
-11.6%$1.75B$748.44M16.30760
YORW
York Water
3.1243 of 5 stars
$30.71
-0.6%
N/A-16.6%$442.84M$74.96M22.42110
ARTNA
Artesian Resources
3.372 of 5 stars
$32.81
+0.1%
N/A-5.7%$338.27M$107.95M15.12240Positive News
Gap Up

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This page (NYSE:AWK) was last updated on 8/23/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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