American Water Works vs Essential Utilities
AWK and WTRG side by side, both in water supply. Figures are trailing twelve months unless noted, from SEC filings and end-of-day prices.
How AWK and WTRG compare
American Water Works is the larger company, worth 2.3 times as much as Essential Utilities ($28.7B against $12.3B).
On earnings, Essential Utilities is cheaper: it trades at 22.2× trailing earnings, against 25.0× for American Water Works.
Essential Utilities grew revenue faster over the last twelve months (9.9% versus 6.8% for American Water Works).
Essential Utilities keeps more of each dollar of sales as profit, with a net margin of 21.6% compared with 21.4% at American Water Works.
Both pay dividends: American Water Works yields 2.4% and Essential Utilities 3.2%.
American Water Works scores higher on the StockData Score (9 against 8 for Essential Utilities), which adds up 30 checks on valuation, growth, past performance, financial health and dividends.
Key numbers
A dot marks the better figure where higher or lower is clearly better.
| Metric | AWK | WTRG |
|---|---|---|
| Size and price | ||
| Market cap | $28.7B | $12.3B |
| Share price | $144.37 | $43.52 |
| Change, 1 year | 11.0% | 11.1% |
| Change, 5 years | −14.9% | −8.6% |
| Beta (5Y) | 0.40 | 0.33 |
| Employees | 7,000 | 3,303 |
| StockData Score | ||
| Total score | 9 (better) | 8 |
| Valuation score | 1 | 2 (better) |
| Growth score | 1 | 1 |
| Performance score | 3 (better) | 2 |
| Health score | 1 (better) | 0 |
| Dividend score | 3 | 3 |
| Valuation | ||
| P/E | 25.0× | 22.2× (better) |
| P/S | 5.4× | 4.8× (better) |
| P/B | 2.5× | 1.8× (better) |
| EV/EBITDA | 15.4× (better) | 15.5× |
| PEG | 3.11 | 2.95 (better) |
| FCF yield | −3.6% | – |
| Fair value | $133.42 | $42.81 |
| Margin of safety | −8.2% | −1.7% (better) |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth (TTM) | 6.8% | 9.9% (better) |
| Revenue growth, 5Y average | 6.5% | 11.1% (better) |
| Net income growth (TTM) | 4.2% (better) | −14.1% |
| EPS growth (TTM) | 4.0% (better) | −15.9% |
| EPS growth, 5Y average | 7.8% | 14.5% (better) |
| Profitability | ||
| Operating margin | 37.0% (better) | 35.1% |
| Net margin | 21.4% | 21.6% (better) |
| FCF margin | −19.5% | – |
| Return on equity | 10.1% (better) | 8.1% |
| Return on invested capital | 5.8% (better) | 5.7% |
| Financial health | ||
| Debt / equity | 1.37 | 1.21 (better) |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 5.47 (better) | 6.31 |
| Interest coverage | 3.0× (better) | 2.6× |
| Current ratio | 0.52 | 0.78 (better) |
| Altman Z-score | 1.08 (better) | 1.01 |
| Piotroski F-score | 7 (better) | 5 |
| Dividends and buybacks | ||
| Dividend yield | 2.4% | 3.2% (better) |
| Payout ratio | 58.3% | 69.8% |
| Years of dividend growth | 13 | 16 (better) |
| Dividend growth, 5Y average | 8.5% (better) | 6.6% |
| Buyback yield | – | −0.10% |
| Shareholder yield | 2.4% | 3.1% (better) |
| Ownership | ||
| Held by institutions | 103% | 79.0% |
| Held by insiders | 0.15% | 4.4% |
| Insider net buying, 12 months | – | −$113K |
| Short interest, % of float | 6.9% | 2.4% |
Go deeper
- AWK stock overview
- AWK income statement
- AWK valuation and score
- WTRG stock overview
- WTRG income statement
- WTRG valuation and score
For information only, not investment advice. Check the source filings before relying on any figure.