American States Water
AWR · Water Utilities
$85.44
0.5%Essential Utilities
WTRG · Water Utilities
$43.11
0.4%The short version
- Essential Utilities is the larger business, with $2.5B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $658M for American States Water, about 3.8 times as much.
- Essential Utilities grew revenue faster (18.6%, against 10.5%).
- Essential Utilities kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (37.2% operating margin, against 30.9% operating margin).
- American States Water turned more of its sales into free cash flow (−1.1% FCF margin, against −17.0% FCF margin).
- American States Water earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (9.3%, against 6.4%).
- Investors pay more for each dollar of American States Water’s earnings: a P/E of 23.4x against 22.0x for Essential Utilities.
| Latest fiscal year | AWR · FY25 | WTRG · FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $3.4B | $12.2B |
| Revenue | $658M | $2.5B |
| Free cash flow | −$7.1M | −$420M |
| Net income | $130M | $616M |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | 10.5% | 18.6% |
| 5-year growth | 6.2% | 11.1% |
| Share count change | 2.9% | 2.3% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 90.8% | — |
| Operating margin | 30.9% | 37.2% |
| Net margin | 19.8% | 24.9% |
| FCF margin | −1.1% | −17.0% |
| Return on capital | 9.3% | 6.4% |
| Return on equity | 13.3% | 9.4% |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | $772M | $8.1B |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 3.1x | 6.1x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $74.7M | $376M |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | 23.4x | 22.0x |
| Piotroski F-score | 4 | 5 |
FY16
AWR $436M
WTRG $820M
FY17
AWR $441M
WTRG $810M
FY18
AWR $437M
WTRG $838M
FY19
AWR $474M
WTRG $890M
FY20
AWR $488M
WTRG $1.5B
FY21
AWR $499M
WTRG $1.9B
FY22
AWR $492M
WTRG $2.3B
FY23
AWR $596M
WTRG $2.1B
FY24
AWR $596M
WTRG $2.1B
FY25
AWR $658M
WTRG $2.5B
AWR
WTRG
FY16
AWR 26.2%
WTRG 40.7%
FY17
AWR 28.9%
WTRG 41.3%
FY18
AWR 23.1%
WTRG 38.6%
FY19
AWR 26.8%
WTRG 38.2%
FY20
AWR 26.7%
WTRG 29.7%
FY21
AWR 28.3%
WTRG 32.1%
FY22
AWR 25.8%
WTRG 28.9%
FY23
AWR 33.0%
WTRG 33.7%
FY24
AWR 31.0%
WTRG 36.3%
FY25
AWR 30.9%
WTRG 37.2%
AWR
WTRG
FY16
AWR −$32.9M
WTRG $13.2M
FY17
AWR $31.4M
WTRG −$96.8M
FY18
AWR $10.2M
WTRG −$127M
FY19
AWR −$35.1M
WTRG −$212M
FY20
AWR −$8.3M
WTRG −$328M
FY21
AWR −$28.9M
WTRG −$376M
FY22
AWR −$48.4M
WTRG −$462M
FY23
AWR −$121M
WTRG −$266M
FY24
AWR −$33.2M
WTRG −$559M
FY25
AWR −$7.1M
WTRG −$420M
AWR
WTRG
FY16
AWR 9.0%
WTRG 10.2%
FY17
AWR 9.8%
WTRG 9.6%
FY18
AWR 9.1%
WTRG 9.2%
FY19
AWR 11.2%
WTRG 9.1%
FY20
AWR 10.2%
WTRG 7.5%
FY21
AWR 10.0%
WTRG 7.6%
FY22
AWR 8.7%
WTRG 7.9%
FY23
AWR 11.9%
WTRG 6.5%
FY24
AWR 10.3%
WTRG 5.7%
FY25
AWR 9.3%
WTRG 6.4%
AWR
WTRG
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Each company's latest fiscal year; fiscal years end in different months. The best value in each row is highlighted where higher (or lower) is clearly better. Not investment advice.