American Water Works (NYSE: AWK) closed at $19.13. AWK announces on August 11 a secondary offering of 30M shares of common stock by selling stockholder, a subsidiary of RWE AG. AWK options were active on August 13 with volume of 15,064 contracts trading according to Track Data.

St. Mary Land Exp (NYSE: SM) closed $28.75. SM options were active on August 13 on volume of 7,195 contracts. SM September and November option implied volatility of 51 is below its 26-week average of 64, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Options Update: Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Options Update: American Water Works options active into secondary offering originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

"Investors have given up on the water industry -- the sector has fallen 60% -- but the best firms have hardly missed a beat," says utility sector specialist Roger Conrad.

In Personal Finance, the advisor reviews the outlook for the sector and two of his favorite stocks -- American Water Works (NYSE: AWK) and Aqua America (NYSE: WTR).

"The EPA stimates the US will have to spend $335 billion over the next decade to keep the taps turned on, given aging infrastructure and supply degradation.

Continue reading Utility expert taps into water stocks

Utility expert taps into water stocks originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is part of a special annual report -- Top Stock Picks '09 -- in which TheStockAdvisors.com asked 75 leading newsletter advisors to select their favorite investment for the new year.

Roger Conrad, the advisory industry's leading authority on the utility sector, looks to American Water Works (NYSE: AWK) as his favorite investment idea for the coming year.

In The Utility Forecaster, he notes, "We now have the opportunity to buy America's premier water utility franchise at a discount to book value." Here, he explains the situation and his bullish outlook.

"In early 2003, Germany's RWE paid a hefty premium for American Water Works. Five years later in April 2008, RWE's new management took a $1 billion write-off to unload the company as an independent company in the U.S.

"As a result, we now have the opportunity to re-enter America's premier water utility franchise at a discount to book value.

"American Water has written off hundreds of millions in good will and overhauled oversight practices that had gone soft under RWE. But with third-quarter earnings surging 11% on a 6.2% revenue jump -- and more the same expected into 2009 -- its fortunes are building again.

Continue reading Top Stock Picks '09: American Water Works (AWK)

Top Stock Picks '09: American Water Works (AWK) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analyst upgrades:

• Baird upgraded Regal-Beloit (NYSE: RBC) to Outperform from Neutral based on valuation and growth expectations.
• Black & Decker (NYSE: BDK) and Lennar (NYSE: LEN) were upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS based on valuation.
• Kroger (NYSE: KR) and Public Storage (NYSE: PSA) were added to Goldman's Conviction Buy List.
• CIBC upgraded Biovail (NYSE: BVF) to Sector Performer from Sector Underperformer.
• Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Cowen.

• Merrill downgraded Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) to Neutral from Buy and expects marketing and promotional spending to limit earnings growth in 2009 and 2010. The firm lowered their target to $35 from $42.
• Mechel Steel (NYSE: MTL) was cut to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley to reflect declining coal demand.
  
• Friedman Billings downgraded shares of Legg Mason (NYSE: LM) to Underperform from Market Perform on liquidity concerns given the Legg Mason's leveraged balance sheet and falling EBITDA. The firm lowered their target to $7 from $11.

Continue reading Analyst calls: RBC, BDK, KR, LEN, KR, CPB, MTL, LM, PIR, AAPL, AVP ...

Analyst calls: RBC, BDK, KR, LEN, KR, CPB, MTL, LM, PIR, AAPL, AVP ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Robert Reich interview: Supercapitalism, the recession, unions, and the worldwide food shortage

Robert Reich interview: Supercapitalism, the recession, unions, and the worldwide food shortage originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

American Water Works Company sounds like an old company. And it is. The company got its start in 1886.

And now it has filed the necessary papers for an IPO.

Basically, American Water Works is a water and wastewater utility. It has customers in 32 states, as well as Ontario, Canada. In all, about 16.2 million people drink its water.

Last year, American Water Works posted $2 billion in sales and $252.5 million in operating income.

No doubt, the company has considerable competitive advantages. The capital costs are significant and the regulators are onerous. But, water is a necessity -- and this means lots of predictable cash flows.

Interestingly enough, there are 53,000 community water systems and about 16,000 community wastewater systems in the U.S. Thus, as a public company, American Water Works should have lots of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) opportunities.

The underwriters on the IPO include Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS), Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C), and Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MER). The proposed ticker symbol is AWK.

The prospectus is located on the SEC websites. Also, if you want to check out more IPOs, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

American Water Works - tapping the IPO market originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.