American Water Works - AWK Competitors

American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) and Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, media sentiment, dividends, community ranking, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Which has more volatility & risk, AWK or WTRG?

American Water Works has a beta of 0.56, suggesting that its stock price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Essential Utilities has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in AWK or WTRG?

American Water Works received 471 more outperform votes than Essential Utilities when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.49% of users gave American Water Works an outperform vote while only 36.17% of users gave Essential Utilities an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
American Water Works	Outperform Votes 488 66.49%	Underperform Votes 246 33.51%
Essential Utilities	Outperform Votes 17 36.17%	Underperform Votes 30 63.83%

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in AWK or WTRG?

83.1% of American Water Works shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.0% of Essential Utilities shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of American Water Works shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Essential Utilities shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate AWK or WTRG?

American Water Works presently has a consensus target price of $158.29, indicating a potential upside of 9.81%. Essential Utilities has a consensus target price of $52.38, indicating a potential upside of 23.12%. Given Essential Utilities' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Essential Utilities is more favorable than American Water Works.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Water Works	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.29
Essential Utilities	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.88

Is AWK or WTRG more profitable?

American Water Works has a net margin of 21.62% compared to Essential Utilities' net margin of 20.33%. American Water Works' return on equity of 10.76% beat Essential Utilities' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Water Works	21.62%	10.76%	3.06%
Essential Utilities	20.33%	8.73%	3.05%

Which has better earnings & valuation, AWK or WTRG?

American Water Works has higher revenue and earnings than Essential Utilities. Essential Utilities 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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Water Works	$3.79 billion	6.92	$820 million	$4.51	31.96
Essential Utilities	$2.29 billion	4.92	$465.24 million	$1.77	24.03

Is AWK or WTRG a better dividend stock?

American Water Works pays an annual dividend of $2.62 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Essential Utilities pays an annual dividend of $1.15 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. American Water Works pays out 58.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Essential Utilities pays out 65.0% 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.

Does the media favor AWK or WTRG?

In the previous week, American Water Works had 7 more articles in the media than Essential Utilities. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for American Water Works and 8 mentions for Essential Utilities. American Water Works' average media sentiment score of 0.86 beat Essential Utilities' score of 0.75 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	9 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Essential Utilities	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

American Water Works beats Essential Utilities on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.