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Aqua America (WTR) Competitors

Aqua America logo

WTR vs. AWK, AWR, CWT, SJW, MSEX, YORW, CWCO, ARTNA, CDZI, and SBS

Should you be buying Aqua America stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Aqua America include American Water Works (AWK), American States Water (AWR), California Water Service Group (CWT), SJW Group (SJW), Middlesex Water (MSEX), York Water (YORW), Consolidated Water (CWCO), Artesian Resources (ARTNA), Cadiz (CDZI), and Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP (SBS).

Aqua America vs.

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

Aqua America has a beta of 0.32, meaning that its share price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Water Works has a beta of 0.68, meaning that its share price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Aqua America pays an annual dividend of $0.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. American Water Works pays an annual dividend of $3.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Aqua America pays out 66.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. American Water Works pays out 56.8% 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 17 consecutive years.

American Water Works has a net margin of 22.44% compared to Aqua America's net margin of 18.02%. American Water Works' return on equity of 10.29% beat Aqua America's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Aqua America18.02% 8.81% 3.16%
American Water Works 22.44%10.29%3.31%

American Water Works received 134 more outperform votes than Aqua America when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 65.81% of users gave Aqua America an outperform vote while only 63.50% of users gave American Water Works an outperform vote.

CompanyUnderperformOutperform
Aqua AmericaOutperform Votes
360
65.81%
Underperform Votes
187
34.19%
American Water WorksOutperform Votes
494
63.50%
Underperform Votes
284
36.50%

American Water Works has a consensus price target of $143.22, indicating a potential downside of 2.60%. Given American Water Works' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe American Water Works is more favorable than Aqua America.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Aqua America
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 Aqua America. American Water Works is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Aqua America, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Aqua America$838.09M10.48$191.99M$1.4128.87
American Water Works$4.68B6.12$1.05B$5.3927.28

In the previous week, American Water Works had 41 more articles in the media than Aqua America. MarketBeat recorded 41 mentions for American Water Works and 0 mentions for Aqua America. American Water Works' average media sentiment score of 0.81 beat Aqua America's score of 0.00 indicating that American Water Works is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Overall Sentiment
Aqua America Neutral
American Water Works Positive

66.5% of Aqua America shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.6% of American Water Works shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Aqua America shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of American Water Works shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

American Water Works beats Aqua America on 16 of the 21 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 {thisCompany.Symbol} 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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WTR vs. The Competition

MetricAqua AmericaWater Supply IndustryUtilities SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$8.79B$4.96B$15.95B$19.21B
Dividend Yield1.81%2.46%5.68%4.01%
P/E Ratio58.1621.1915.7533.50
Price / Sales10.486.0822.1529.16
Price / Cash23.2513.5218.5317.52
Price / Book3.612.602.054.55
Net Income$191.99M$200.07M$667.57M$1.02B

Aqua America Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
WTR
Aqua America
N/A$40.71
flat
N/A+8.0%$8.79B$838.09M58.161,570
AWK
American Water Works
3.9511 of 5 stars
$147.18
-0.8%
$141.38
-3.9%
+14.2%$28.70B$4.68B27.316,500Earnings Report
Dividend Increase
Analyst Forecast
News Coverage
AWR
American States Water
3.6633 of 5 stars
$80.78
+0.7%
$74.00
-8.4%
+9.0%$3.11B$595.46M25.48810Upcoming Earnings
Short Interest ↓
Positive News
CWT
California Water Service Group
4.7994 of 5 stars
$51.29
+1.1%
$54.67
+6.6%
-3.3%$3.05B$1.04B14.821,180Earnings Report
Dividend Announcement
Analyst Forecast
News Coverage
SJW
SJW Group
2.6419 of 5 stars
$54.52
+0.7%
$56.00
+2.7%
-0.5%$1.86B$748.44M19.76760Dividend Announcement
Analyst Forecast
News Coverage
MSEX
Middlesex Water
1.9659 of 5 stars
$63.07
+0.9%
$58.50
-7.2%
+13.6%$1.13B$191.88M27.42350Earnings Report
Dividend Announcement
News Coverage
Gap Down
YORW
York Water
3.859 of 5 stars
$36.18
+1.4%
N/A-4.9%$517.62M$74.96M24.31110Upcoming Earnings
News Coverage
Positive News
CWCO
Consolidated Water
4.5414 of 5 stars
$24.07
-0.7%
N/A-11.8%$376.08M$133.97M14.62200Short Interest ↓
Positive News
ARTNA
Artesian Resources
2.3393 of 5 stars
$34.39
-0.8%
N/A-7.2%$354.27M$107.95M17.63240Upcoming Earnings
Short Interest ↑
News Coverage
CDZI
Cadiz
3.7858 of 5 stars
$2.61
-4.0%
$10.00
+283.1%
+24.4%$213.46M$9.61M-5.1210News Coverage
Positive News
SBS
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP
2.2419 of 5 stars
$18.81
+0.5%
N/A+25.4%$12.83B$26.17B7.3912,500News Coverage

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This page (NYSE:WTR) was last updated on 5/4/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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