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Is American Water Works Company (AWK) Stock Outpacing Its Utilities Peers This Year?

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For those looking to find strong Utilities stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Is American Water Works Company (AWK - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Utilities peers, we might be able to answer that question.

American Water Works Company is a member of the Utilities sector. This group includes 122 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #7. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.

The Zacks Rank is a successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. AWK is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AWK's full-year earnings has moved 0.60% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

According to our latest data, AWK has moved about 29.17% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, the Utilities sector has returned an average of 16.39% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, American Water Works Company is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Looking more specifically, AWK belongs to the Utility - Water Supply industry, which includes 14 individual stocks and currently sits at #102 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 32.55% so far this year, meaning that AWK is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors in the Utilities sector will want to keep a close eye on AWK as it attempts to continue its solid performance.


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