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American Water Works (AWK) Competitors

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$145.72 +5.48 (+3.91%)
Closing price 08/1/2025 03:59 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$144.28 -1.44 (-0.99%)
As of 08/1/2025 07:38 PM Eastern
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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

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

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
American Water Works$4.68B6.07$1.05B$5.5526.26
Consolidated Water$133.97M3.38$28.24M$1.6217.55

American Water Works presently has a consensus price target of $142.00, suggesting a potential downside of 2.55%. Given American Water Works' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe American Water Works is more favorable than Consolidated Water.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
American Water Works
3 Sell rating(s)
6 Hold rating(s)
1 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
1.80
Consolidated Water
0 Sell rating(s)
0 Hold rating(s)
0 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
0.00

American Water Works has a net margin of 21.91% compared to Consolidated Water's net margin of 20.75%. 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
American Water Works21.91% 10.34% 3.29%
Consolidated Water 20.75%7.43%6.61%

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

86.6% of American Water Works shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.2% of Consolidated Water shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of American Water Works shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.3% of Consolidated Water shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

American Water Works pays an annual dividend of $3.31 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Consolidated Water pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. American Water Works pays out 59.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Consolidated Water pays out 34.6% 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. American Water Works has increased its dividend for 18 consecutive years and Consolidated Water has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. American Water Works is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

In the previous week, American Water Works had 45 more articles in the media than Consolidated Water. MarketBeat recorded 47 mentions for American Water Works and 2 mentions for Consolidated Water. Consolidated Water's average media sentiment score of 1.27 beat American Water Works' score of 0.72 indicating that Consolidated Water is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
American Water Works
20 Very Positive mention(s)
4 Positive mention(s)
11 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
1 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Consolidated Water
2 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
0 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

Summary

American Water Works beats Consolidated Water on 15 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$28.43B$7.11B$16.04B$20.46B
Dividend Yield2.27%2.74%5.48%3.71%
P/E Ratio26.2617.7019.9529.02
Price / Sales6.074.31200.6556.95
Price / Cash15.4412.5619.0322.46
Price / Book2.662.222.144.43
Net Income$1.05B$420.94M$751.46M$993.74M
7 Day Performance3.87%-0.45%-0.99%-3.40%
1 Month Performance4.15%-4.70%19.14%-2.70%
1 Year Performance-1.11%-7.74%182.91%10.16%

American Water Works Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
AWK
American Water Works
3.8712 of 5 stars
$145.72
+3.9%
$142.00
-2.6%
-1.1%$28.43B$4.68B26.266,700Trending News
Earnings Report
Dividend Announcement
Analyst Forecast
Analyst Revision
High Trading Volume
CWCO
Consolidated Water
3.7295 of 5 stars
$29.59
-0.2%
N/A+1.6%$471.07M$133.97M18.27200Positive News
GWRS
Global Water Resources
3.0419 of 5 stars
$10.11
-0.6%
N/A-22.6%$277.53M$53.54M43.9690News Coverage
Dividend Announcement
MSEX
Middlesex Water
3.0121 of 5 stars
$51.52
-1.1%
$61.00
+18.4%
-21.6%$923.24M$195.65M21.38350News Coverage
Earnings Report
AWR
American States Water
4.0882 of 5 stars
$72.18
-1.0%
$77.50
+7.4%
-12.4%$2.78B$595.46M22.21810Trending News
Upcoming Earnings
Dividend Increase
Analyst Revision
CMS
CMS Energy
3.3537 of 5 stars
$71.37
-1.9%
$77.25
+8.2%
+12.0%$21.35B$7.52B21.188,324Trending News
Earnings Report
CWT
California Water Service Group
4.5389 of 5 stars
$44.36
-1.1%
$58.00
+30.8%
-15.6%$2.64B$1.04B19.461,278News Coverage
Earnings Report
Dividend Announcement
Analyst Forecast
Gap Up
WTRG
Essential Utilities
4.6681 of 5 stars
$36.71
-1.1%
$43.50
+18.5%
-7.9%$10.29B$2.09B16.463,291Trending News
Earnings Report
Dividend Increase
Short Interest ↑
Analyst Revision
Gap Up
HTO
H2O America
3.3405 of 5 stars
$47.78
-1.7%
$57.50
+20.3%
-19.7%$1.63B$766.66M16.03760Trending News
Earnings Report
Dividend Announcement
Analyst Forecast
Analyst Revision
YORW
York Water
3.459 of 5 stars
$30.15
-1.4%
N/A-25.9%$434.16M$74.96M22.01110News Coverage
Short Interest ↑
ARTNA
Artesian Resources
3.4531 of 5 stars
$32.36
-2.1%
N/A-16.1%$333.57M$109.29M15.56240Upcoming Earnings

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This page (NYSE:AWK) was last updated on 8/3/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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