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American Water Works (AWK) Competitors

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$139.91 -0.40 (-0.29%)
Closing price 03:30 PM Eastern
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$139.91 0.00 (0.00%)
As of 04:32 PM Eastern
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AWK vs. CWCO, GWRS, MSEX, AWR, CMS, CWT, WTRG, SJW, 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), SJW Group (SJW), 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 better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, media sentiment, risk, valuation, dividends and earnings.

American Water Works has a consensus price target of $143.22, suggesting a potential upside of 2.37%. Given American Water Works' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe American Water Works is more favorable than Consolidated Water.

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

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$133.97M3.71$28.24M$1.6219.29
American Water Works$4.68B5.82$1.05B$5.4925.48

American Water Works has a net margin of 22.24% compared to Consolidated Water's net margin of 20.75%. American Water Works' return on equity of 10.35% beat Consolidated Water's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Consolidated Water20.75% 7.43% 6.61%
American Water Works 22.24%10.35%3.32%

Consolidated Water has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its stock price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Water Works has a beta of 0.69, meaning that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Consolidated Water pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. American Water Works pays an annual dividend of $3.31 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Consolidated Water pays out 34.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. American Water Works pays out 60.3% 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.

In the previous week, American Water Works had 26 more articles in the media than Consolidated Water. MarketBeat recorded 28 mentions for American Water Works and 2 mentions for Consolidated Water. American Water Works' average media sentiment score of 1.17 beat Consolidated Water's score of 0.20 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)
0 Positive mention(s)
1 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral
American Water Works
19 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
8 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

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

Summary

American Water Works beats Consolidated Water on 16 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$27.36B$7.27B$15.85B$20.55B
Dividend Yield2.36%2.65%5.56%3.75%
P/E Ratio25.4818.5620.4528.05
Price / Sales5.824.5429.0846.08
Price / Cash14.8713.1919.1222.31
Price / Book2.642.352.164.59
Net Income$1.05B$420.94M$751.09M$985.44M
7 Day Performance1.07%2.27%1.23%2.91%
1 Month Performance-1.39%2.11%3.13%5.47%
1 Year Performance9.34%8.71%17.01%14.61%

American Water Works Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
AWK
American Water Works
4.1435 of 5 stars
$139.91
-0.3%
$143.22
+2.4%
+9.1%$27.36B$4.68B25.486,700Positive News
CWCO
Consolidated Water
3.3348 of 5 stars
$29.93
+0.3%
N/A+26.6%$476.49M$133.97M18.48200
GWRS
Global Water Resources
2.6996 of 5 stars
$10.20
+0.1%
N/A-14.5%$279.99M$52.69M44.3590Dividend Announcement
MSEX
Middlesex Water
3.112 of 5 stars
$54.17
-0.6%
$61.00
+12.6%
+4.7%$970.73M$195.65M22.48350Positive News
AWR
American States Water
4.0344 of 5 stars
$76.64
+0.3%
$77.50
+1.1%
+6.8%$2.95B$595.46M23.58810Positive News
CMS
CMS Energy
4.3427 of 5 stars
$69.18
+0.2%
$77.00
+11.3%
+18.1%$20.69B$7.52B20.539,070Positive News
CWT
California Water Service Group
4.9065 of 5 stars
$45.43
-0.1%
$58.00
+27.7%
-4.2%$2.71B$1.04B19.931,278
WTRG
Essential Utilities
4.8089 of 5 stars
$37.09
+0.5%
$43.50
+17.3%
+0.1%$10.40B$2.09B16.633,291
SJW
SJW Group
3.9569 of 5 stars
N/A$57.50
+∞
N/A$1.88B$766.66M17.93760
YORW
York Water
3.1832 of 5 stars
$31.62
flat
N/A-13.6%$455.33M$74.96M23.08110News Coverage
Ex-Dividend
ARTNA
Artesian Resources
3.9389 of 5 stars
$33.43
-0.8%
N/A-7.9%$344.60M$109.29M16.07240

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This page (NYSE:AWK) was last updated on 7/3/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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