AWKAmerican Water Works
Is the business good?
A genuinely good business: earnings fully cash-backed (1.5×) and margins widening.
Operating profit is fully backed by cash. Conversion is improving vs a year ago.
Positive operating leverage, operating profit is growing faster than sales, so margins widen as the business scales.
Margin-driven, fat margins on slower asset turns. ROE 10% = margin × turnover × leverage.
Unless marked, from derived.
Against the whole market›
Percentile against every name Ryufin tracks. Higher is better; the tick marks the middle of the market. Context, not one of the checks above.
Where this answer is blind. The F-score rewards improvement, so an already-elite company can score mid-pack.
How good a business is AWK?
American Water Works earns 5.6% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so growth costs more than it returns.
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 3.4 points below what the capital costs: growth destroys value
- Operating margin
- 37%
Operating margin · Utilities - Regulated Water median 29% · 12 months to Q2 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.53×
Cash conversion · 1.40× a year ago · operating cash flow covers the operating profit after tax
- Share count, year on year
- +0.51%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 33% |
| FY2021 | 30% |
| FY2022 | 34% |
| FY2023 | 36% |
| FY2024 | 37% |
| FY2025 | 37% |
Details›
- Operating margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 37%
- Net margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 21%
- Free cash flow margin
- −19%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $5.28B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- −$1.03B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $1.13B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 5.6%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion is operating cash flow over operating profit after tax.
Utilities, Regulated Water
The closest names by size in the same industry