Stocks · Utilities · Regulated Water

American Water Works Company, Inc. AWK

$130.25 +1.87% Close, Oct 2, 2026 · NYSE · Market cap $25.88B

Expensive vs sector

Next earnings report: Oct 28, 2026

Scroll or pinch to zoom, drag to move. Daily prices adjusted for splits. Markers: E = earnings (green beat, red miss), S = split, D = dividend.

Three things to know

  1. Net debt is 5.5× EBITDA, a high level of leverage.
  2. The shares trade at 22.5× trailing earnings, lower than 81% of the company's own readings over the past five years.
  3. Revenue over the last four quarters was $5.28B, up 6.9% from a year earlier.

PromtFinance scores

Each score is a percentile within the Utilities sector (0–100). Under each score: how the stock ranks in its sector on every component. As of Oct 5, 2026.

Growth62Neutral

How fast revenue, earnings and cash flow are growing.

  • Revenue growth (TTM, YoY)Bottom 47%
  • EPS growth (TTM, YoY)Bottom 47%
  • Revenue growth, 3-year CAGRTop 11%
  • Revenue growth accelerationBottom 49%
Quality77Positive

Returns on capital, margins, earnings quality and balance-sheet strength.

  • Return on invested capitalTop 34%
  • Gross marginTop 47%
  • Operating marginTop 5%
  • Cash conversion (OCF / net income)Bottom 35%
  • Accruals (lower is better)Top 47%
  • Net debt / EBITDA (lower is better)Bottom 40%
  • Interest coverTop 20%
Value20Very weak

How cheap the shares are relative to earnings, cash flow and their own history.

  • Earnings yieldBottom 27%
  • Free-cash-flow yieldTop 42%
  • EBITDA / enterprise valueBottom 13%
  • Sales / enterprise valueBottom 8%
  • P/E vs own 5-year history (lower is better)Top 43%
Momentum78Positive

Strength and persistence of the price trend, including versus the S&P 500.

  • 12-month return excluding last monthTop 33%
  • 6-month returnTop 27%
  • 1-year return vs S&P 500Top 43%
  • Distance from 52-week highTop 13%
  • Trend checklist (0–4)Top 26%
Revisions12Very weak

Earnings surprises and analyst sentiment (estimate-revision history is being collected).

  • Average EPS surprise, last 4 quartersBottom 22%
  • Consecutive EPS beatsBottom 39%
  • Share of analysts rating BuyTop 50%
  • Upside to consensus price targetBottom 11%
Stability60Neutral

Low volatility, shallow drawdowns, low market sensitivity and modest leverage.

  • Volatility, 60 days (lower is better)Bottom 28%
  • Maximum drawdown, 3 yearsTop 36%
  • Beta vs S&P 500 (lower is better)Top 1%
  • Net debt / EBITDA (lower is better)Bottom 40%

What changed

Latest four quarters versus the same period a year earlier (growth: versus one quarter earlier).

MeasureBeforeNow
Revenue growth (YoY)8.1%6.9%↓
EPS growth (YoY)2.9%4.1%↑
Gross margin60.3%47.2%↓
Operating margin36.5%36.9%↑
FCF margin-20.0%-19.5%↑

Fundamental momentum

MeasureNow (TTM)Year / quarter beforeSector rank
Revenue growth (TTM, YoY)6.9%8.1%↓Bottom 47%
EPS growth (TTM, YoY)4.1%2.9%↑Bottom 47%
Gross margin47.2%60.3%↓Top 47%
Operating margin36.9%36.5%↑Top 5%
Net margin21.3%21.9%↓—
Free-cash-flow margin-19.5%-20.0%↑—
Return on invested capital4.4%—Top 34%
Revenue growth, 3-year CAGR10.7%—Top 11%

Quality of earnings and balance sheet

Cash conversion (OCF / net income)Above 1× means profits are backed by cash.
2.07×
Accruals (net income − OCF) / assetsLower is better; high accruals can signal weaker earnings quality.
-3.3%
Stock-based compensation / revenueA cost to shareholders through dilution.
0.0%
Receivables growth vs revenue growthReceivables growing much faster than sales can be a warning.
-44.2 pp
Net debt / EBITDABelow 1× is conservative; above 3× is high leverage.
5.54×
Interest cover (operating income / interest)How many times operating profit covers interest.
3.0×

Shareholder returns

Dividend yield (dividends paid, TTM)
2.54%
Net buyback yield (TTM)
-1.84%
Shareholder yield
0.70%
Share count change, 1 year
+0.5%
Share count change, 3-year CAGR
+0.2%

Shareholder yield = dividends + net buybacks over the last four quarters, divided by market cap.

Based on the four quarters through Jun 30, 2026 (filed Jul 29, 2026).

Earnings and expectations

Earnings momentum

Consecutive EPS beats
1
Beats in the last 8 reports
3 of 8
Average EPS surprise, last 4
-0.1%
Average 2-day reaction, last 8
-0.7%
Positive 20 days after report
4 of 8

Analysts

Consensus price target
$140.50
Target vs current price
+7.9%
Analysts with a rating
30
Share rating Buy or Strong Buy
47%
Consensus rating
Buy

How the stock reacted to recent reports

Report dateEPS surprise2 days5 days20 days60 days
Jul 29, 2026+5.2%+0.0%-2.9%-0.3%—
Apr 29, 2026-7.3%-0.5%-5.0%-6.7%+1.5%
Feb 18, 2026-1.6%-1.8%+0.4%+3.5%-4.6%
Oct 29, 2025+3.2%-3.5%-5.0%-3.3%-3.0%
Jul 30, 2025-2.6%-0.9%+0.4%+2.1%+2.0%
Apr 30, 2025-0.9%+0.8%+2.3%-3.4%-3.8%
Feb 19, 2025+8.0%+0.5%+7.9%+13.8%+5.2%
Oct 30, 2024-3.8%-0.1%+1.0%+1.3%-7.0%

Returns from the close before each report. Past reactions do not determine future ones.

Earnings history

Report dateEPSEstimateSurpriseRevenue
Jul 29, 2026$1.61$1.53+5.2%$1.35B
Apr 29, 2026$1.01$1.09-7.3%$1.21B
Feb 18, 2026$1.24$1.26-1.6%$1.27B
Oct 29, 2025$1.94$1.88+3.2%$1.45B
Jul 30, 2025$1.48$1.52-2.6%$1.28B
Apr 30, 2025$1.05$1.06-0.9%$1.14B
Feb 19, 2025$1.22$1.13+8.0%$1.20B
Oct 30, 2024$1.77$1.84-3.8%$1.32B

Valuation in context

MultipleNow5-year median5-year percentileSector rank (cheapness)
P/E (trailing)22.5×24.6×19thBottom 27%
P/E (forward)21.4×———
EV / EBITDA14.6×——Bottom 13%
EV / Sales7.90×——Bottom 8%
Free-cash-flow yield-3.98%——Top 42%
Earnings yield4.44%——Bottom 27%

P/E over the past five years

Range 20.1× – 42.1× since Jun 30, 2021. Each point: price on the filing date divided by trailing-twelve-month EPS known then.

What moved the stock over the past year

Price return, 1 year
-4.3%
Earnings per share growth (TTM)
+4.1%
Change in P/E multiple
-5.0%

Most of the move came from a change in the valuation multiple.

Technical state

Trend checklist

  • ✗ Price above 20-day average
  • ✗ Price above 50-day average
  • ✗ Price above 200-day average
  • ✓ 50-day average above 200-day
  • ✗ MACD histogram positive

Trend quality

Days above the 50-day average
0
Days above the 200-day average
0
50-day average slope (20 days)
+0.7%
200-day average slope (20 days)
+0.4%
Distance from 50-day average
-4.1%
Distance from 200-day average
-1.3%
RSI (14)
38.4
Relative volume
1.15×

Risk and drawdowns

Volatility, 60 days (annualized)
20.3%
Volatility vs own 5-year history
28th percentile · Normal for this stock
Beta vs S&P 500 (2 years, weekly)
-0.39
Correlation with S&P 500
-0.31
Current drawdown from 1-year high
-10.4%
Maximum drawdown, 3 years
-20.3%

Largest declines in the past six years

From peakTo lowDeclineLengthRecovery
Dec 31, 2021Apr 16, 2024-39.7%574 daysNot yet recovered
Nov 16, 2020Mar 3, 2021-20.2%72 days93 days (Jul 15, 2021)
Sep 8, 2021Dec 1, 2021-11.1%59 days21 days (Dec 31, 2021)

Declines of 10% or more from a closing high, measured on daily closes.

Financial statements

Market cap
$25.88B
P/E (TTM)
22.5
EPS, diluted (TTM)
$5.78
Revenue (TTM)
$5.28B
Dividend yield
2.64%
52-week range
$120.57 – $145.64
FY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025
Revenue$3.93B$3.79B$4.23B$4.68B$5.14B
Gross profit$2.15B$2.20B$2.51B$2.83B$2.23B
Operating income$1.20B$1.27B$1.50B$1.72B$1.88B
Net income$1.26B$820.0M$944.0M$1.05B$1.11B
EPS (diluted)$6.94$4.51$4.89$5.39$5.70
Q3 2024Q4 2024Q1 2025Q2 2025Q3 2025Q4 2025Q1 2026Q2 2026
Revenue$1.32B$1.20B$1.14B$1.28B$1.45B$1.27B$1.21B$1.35B
Net income$350.0M$239.0M$205.0M$289.0M$379.0M$238.0M$196.0M$315.0M
EPS (diluted)$1.79$1.23$1.05$1.48$1.94$1.22$1.01$1.61
FY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025
Operating cash flow$1.44B$1.11B$1.87B$2.04B$2.06B
Capital expenditure-$1.87B-$2.42B-$2.73B-$2.86B-$3.13B
Free cash flow-$432.0M-$1.31B-$860.0M-$811.0M-$1.07B
Dividends paid-$428.0M-$467.0M-$532.0M-$585.0M-$633.0M
Net share buybacks-$1.0M$0$1.69B$0$0

Cash outflows are shown as negative numbers.

Cash and short-term investments
$191.0M
Total assets
$36.45B
Total liabilities
$24.79B
Total debt
$16.06B
Net debt
$15.87B
Shareholders’ equity
$11.66B

As of Jun 30, 2026 (filed Jul 29, 2026).

Dividends

Ex-dateAmountPaid
Aug 11, 2026$0.90Sep 1, 2026
May 12, 2026$0.90Jun 2, 2026
Feb 10, 2026$0.83Mar 3, 2026
Nov 13, 2025$0.83Dec 2, 2025
Aug 12, 2025$0.83Sep 3, 2025
May 13, 2025$0.83Jun 3, 2025
Feb 7, 2025$0.77Mar 4, 2025
Nov 12, 2024$0.77Dec 3, 2024

Short interest

Shares sold short
13,180,501
Days to cover
7.01
Change vs previous report
+13.1%

FINRA short interest, settlement date Sep 15, 2026.