American Water Works Company
AWK on NYSE. American Water Works sells water and wastewater service to homes and businesses. Market value $25.4bn.
Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.
Should I look at this?
Not a fit for our list right now
Why it could be worth it
See Utilities stocks that passed both tests
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $-4.05 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 21.1 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 5 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 62 of 100. Price score: 41 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$128.04 a share, 6% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $120.57 to $145.64.
Dividend: 2.5% a year
Paid every year for at least 5 years
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $3.9bn | $3.8bn | $4.2bn | $4.7bn | $5.1bn |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 30.4% | 33.6% | 35.5% | 36.7% | 36.6% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | 1.50 | 1.61 | 1.26 | 1.36 | 1.46 |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.18bn | 0.19bn | 0.19bn | 0.20bn | 0.20bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive0 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
- Financial strength (Piotroski)6 of 7 checks we could run
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- Debt1.46× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 6.4% a year
- Buying back its own sharesNo, 9% more shares since 2021
The quarter to June 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $1.4 billion last quarter, up 6% on a year ago.
- Profit: $315 million, up 9% on a year ago.
- It keeps 37 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 36 cents a year earlier.
- Over the past 12 months it spent $1 billion more cash than it brought in, compared with $908 million a year earlier.
- 1% more shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit less of the company.
- Debt is $15.8 billion more than cash, up from $14.9 billion a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $1.3bn |
| December 2024 | $1.2bn |
| March 2025 | $1.1bn |
| June 2025 | $1.3bn |
| September 2025 | $1.5bn |
| December 2025 | $1.3bn |
| March 2026 | $1.2bn |
| June 2026 | $1.4bn |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $350m |
| December 2024 | $239m |
| March 2025 | $205m |
| June 2025 | $289m |
| September 2025 | $379m |
| December 2025 | $238m |
| March 2026 | $196m |
| June 2026 | $315m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- 28 October 2026
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 18 February 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 28 October 2026
Who owns it
9 long-term investors we follow own it, down from 11 last quarter. 1,130 funds in all.
- First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners
- Value
- $13m
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
- Mairs & PowerAndy Adams
- Value
- $657,900
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
- GAMCO InvestorsMario Gabelli
- Value
- $398,951
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aristotle Capital ManagementHoward Gleicher | $714m | 1.5% | Cut |
| Barrow HanleyBarrow Hanley team | $162m | 0.5% | Added |
| First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners | $13m | <0.1% | |
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $5m | <0.1% | Added |
| Nuance InvestmentsScott Moore | $5m | 0.8% | Added |
| Mairs & PowerAndy Adams | $657,900 | <0.1% | |
| Cullen Capital ManagementJames Cullen | $561,583 | <0.1% | Cut |
| GAMCO InvestorsMario Gabelli | $398,951 | <0.1% | |
| First Eagle Investment ManagementMatthew McLennan | $158,422 | <0.1% | Added |
Sold out this quarter
- Horizon KineticsMurray StahlSold out
- Scharf InvestmentsBrian KrawezSold out
Largest holders overall
- BlackRock$2.7bnAdded
- Wellington Management Group LLP$2.0bnAdded
- Vanguard Capital Management$1.7bn
- State Street$1.6bn
- Vanguard Portfolio Management$1.5bn
- GQG Partners$1.2bnAdded
- Aristotle Capital Management$714mCut
- Geode Capital Management$685m
- JPMorgan Chase$664mAdded
- Amundi$545mCut
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
4 investors own more than 5%.
- BlackRock, Inc.Passive investor10.1%Since 31 December 2024
- Wellington Management Group LLPPassive investorat least 7.6%+1.8 pts(filed with 3 related holders)Since 30 June 2026
- Vanguard Capital ManagementPassive investor7.6%Since 31 March 2026
- Vanguard Portfolio ManagementPassive investor5.8%Since 31 March 2026
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
BlackRock, Inc. Passive investor | 10.1% | 31 December 2024 | |
Wellington Management Group LLP Passive investor | at least 7.6%+1.8 pts (filed with 3 related holders) | 30 June 2026 | |
Vanguard Capital Management Passive investor | 7.6% | 31 March 2026 | |
Vanguard Portfolio Management Passive investor | 5.8% | 31 March 2026 | |
The Vanguard Group Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 13 March 2026 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
No insider bought or sold on the open market in the last 12 months.
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
None of the warning signs we check for were found.
We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.
We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 18 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 29 Jul 2026 and 15 later 8-Ks.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.