Sifting through countless of stocks in the Water Utilities industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities and Inc.

American Water Works Company, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides water and wastewater services in the United States. It offers water and wastewater services on military installations; and undertakes contracts with municipal customers, primarily to operate and manage water and wastewater facilities, as well as offers other related services. The company also operates approximately 80 surface water treatment plants; 520 groundwater treatment plants; 170 wastewater treatment plants; 55,000 miles of transmission, distribution, and collection mains and pipes; 1,200 groundwater wells; 1,800 water and wastewater pumping stations; 1,100 treated water storage facilities; and 75 dams. In addition, it offers water and wastewater services to 14 states serving approximately 3.6 million active customers. The company serves residential customers; commercial customers, including food and beverage providers, commercial property developers and proprietors, and energy suppliers; fire service and private fire customers; industrial customers, such as large-scale manufacturers, mining, and production operations; public authorities comprising government buildings and other public sector facilities, such as schools and universities; and other utilities and community water and wastewater systems. The company was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Camden, New Jersey.

Essential Utilities, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates regulated utilities that provide water, wastewater, and natural gas services in the United States. The company operates through Regulated Water; and Regulated Natural Gas segments. It also provides utility service line protection solutions and repair services to households; gas marketing and production activities; and natural gas distribution services. The company serves approximately 5.5 million residential water, commercial water, fire protection, industrial water, wastewater, and other water and utility customers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, Illinois, North Carolina, New Jersey, Indiana, Virginia, and Kentucky under the Aqua and Peoples brands. The company was formerly known as Aqua America, Inc. and changed its name to Essential Utilities, Inc. in February 2020. Essential Utilities, Inc. was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Latest Water Utilities and American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities, Inc. Stock News

As of August 20, 2026, American Water Works Company, Inc. had a $27.3 billion market capitalization, compared to the Water Utilities median of $2.8 million. American Water Works Company, Inc.’s stock is up 3.7% in 2026, down 0.6% in the previous five trading days and down 5.51% in the past year.

Currently, American Water Works Company, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 23.8. American Water Works Company, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $5.3 billion with a 21.3% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 6.2%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $6.084 per share for the current fiscal year. American Water Works Company, Inc. currently has a 2.6% dividend yield.

As of August 20, 2026, Essential Utilities, Inc. had a $11.5 billion market cap, putting it in the 79th percentile of all stocks. Essential Utilities, Inc.’s stock is up 4.7% in 2026, down 0.5% in the previous five trading days and up 3.09% in the past year.

Currently, Essential Utilities, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 20.7. Essential Utilities, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $2.6 billion with a 21.6% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 3.1%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $2.226 per share for the current fiscal year. Essential Utilities, Inc. currently has a 3.6% dividend yield.

How We Compare American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities and Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
American Water Works Company, Inc.	AWK	D
Essential Utilities, Inc.	WTRG	C

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

American Water Works Company, Inc. has a Value Score of 35, which is Expensive. Essential Utilities, Inc. has a Value Score of 44, which is Average.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities or Inc. has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to value.

American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities and Inc. Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
American Water Works Company, Inc.	AWK	A
Essential Utilities, Inc.	WTRG	A

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

American Water Works Company, Inc. has a Growth Score of 89, which is Very Strong. Essential Utilities, Inc. has a Growth Score of 83, which is Very Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Growth Grade breakdown above, both American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities and Inc. have a grade of A. For investors who focus solely on a company’s upward growth, further research should be conducted into both companies’ other financial metrics before deciding whether to invest.

American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities and Inc.’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
American Water Works Company, Inc.	AWK	C
Essential Utilities, Inc.	WTRG	C

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

American Water Works Company, Inc. has a Momentum Score of 41, which is Average. Essential Utilities, Inc. has a Momentum Score of 46, which is Average.

The Momentum Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities or Inc. has a strong enough Momentum Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to momentum.

Other American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities and Inc. Grades

In addition to Momentum, Value and Growth, A+ Investor also provides grades for Estimate Revisions and Quality.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the ranking of key metrics. Specifically, the quality grade is the percentile rank of the composite of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and F-Score.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities or Inc. Stock?

Overall, American Water Works Company, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 35, Growth Score of 89 and Momentum Score of 41.

Essential Utilities, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 44, Growth Score of 83 and Momentum Score of 46.

Comparing American Water Works Company, Inc., Essential Utilities and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.