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American Water Works (AWK) Competitors

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$135.09 +0.03 (+0.02%)
Closing price 09/22/2025 03:59 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$135.46 +0.37 (+0.27%)
As of 06:37 AM 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

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) and Consolidated Water (NASDAQ:CWCO) are both utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, risk 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
American Water Works$4.68B5.63$1.05B$5.5524.34
Consolidated Water$133.97M4.10$28.24M$1.6221.31

In the previous week, American Water Works had 4 more articles in the media than Consolidated Water. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for American Water Works and 12 mentions for Consolidated Water. American Water Works' average media sentiment score of 1.46 beat Consolidated Water's score of 0.63 indicating that American Water Works is being referred to more favorably in the media.

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

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

American Water Works currently has a consensus target price of $141.13, indicating a potential upside of 4.47%. Consolidated Water has a consensus target price of $40.00, indicating a potential upside of 15.87%. Given Consolidated Water's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Consolidated Water is more favorable than American Water Works.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
American Water Works
2 Sell rating(s)
5 Hold rating(s)
1 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
1.88
Consolidated Water
0 Sell rating(s)
0 Hold rating(s)
1 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
3.00

American Water Works pays an annual dividend of $3.31 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Consolidated Water pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. 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 raised its dividend for 18 consecutive years and Consolidated Water has raised 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.

American Water Works has a beta of 0.69, meaning that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Consolidated Water has a beta of 0.57, meaning that its stock price is 43% 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
American Water Works21.91% 10.34% 3.29%
Consolidated Water 12.24%7.77%6.84%

Summary

American Water Works beats Consolidated Water on 13 of the 18 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$26.35B$7.20B$16.26B$21.65B
Dividend Yield2.45%2.75%4.70%3.50%
P/E Ratio24.3418.3251.4230.23
Price / Sales5.634.4832.9558.72
Price / Cash14.3113.1319.2718.30
Price / Book2.552.332.244.66
Net Income$1.05B$420.94M$748.44M$1.00B
7 Day Performance-0.85%1.49%0.73%1.11%
1 Month Performance-7.45%-1.23%0.96%2.95%
1 Year Performance-8.43%-2.07%329.73%15.18%

American Water Works Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
AWK
American Water Works
4.5516 of 5 stars
$135.09
+0.0%
$141.13
+4.5%
-8.2%$26.35B$4.68B24.346,700Positive News
CWCO
Consolidated Water
4.4901 of 5 stars
$33.63
+1.3%
$40.00
+18.9%
+34.5%$535.63M$129.10M20.76200Analyst Downgrade
GWRS
Global Water Resources
3.0444 of 5 stars
$9.95
+0.9%
N/A-20.3%$273.33M$52.69M45.2390
MSEX
Middlesex Water
2.9776 of 5 stars
$52.79
-2.1%
$61.00
+15.6%
-17.8%$951.28M$191.88M21.81350
AWR
American States Water
3.8225 of 5 stars
$72.36
-1.0%
$77.50
+7.1%
-14.5%$2.79B$615.96M22.13810Positive News
CMS
CMS Energy
4.2835 of 5 stars
$71.64
-0.1%
$77.25
+7.8%
+0.9%$21.44B$8.02B21.208,324Positive News
CWT
California Water Service Group
4.7262 of 5 stars
$45.23
-2.2%
$56.00
+23.8%
-15.8%$2.69B$990.69M19.751,278Positive News
WTRG
Essential Utilities
4.9269 of 5 stars
$37.81
-1.3%
$44.50
+17.7%
-2.5%$10.60B$2.09B16.233,291Positive News
HTO
H2O America
3.7788 of 5 stars
$48.79
-1.8%
$56.50
+15.8%
-16.9%$1.72B$788.74M16.00760
YORW
York Water
3.9087 of 5 stars
$30.41
-1.5%
N/A-18.9%$438.51M$74.96M22.20110
ARTNA
Artesian Resources
3.7758 of 5 stars
$32.57
-1.3%
N/A-13.1%$335.83M$110.43M15.01240Positive News

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This page (NYSE:AWK) was last updated on 9/23/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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