American Water Accelerates Dividend Payment Date for Tax Reasons

American Water Works Co. (AWK), the biggest publicly traded water company in the U.S., declared a quarterly cash dividend of 25 cents a share and accelerated the payment to Dec. 28 to take advantage of 2012 tax rates.

The regular quarterly cash dividend, historically paid in March, is now payable at the end of the month to shareholders of record as of Dec. 20, Jeff Sterba, president and chief executive officer of American Water, said in a statement.

The board decided to accelerate the payment “due to the uncertainty over the tax rates that will be in effect in 2013,” Sterba said. American Water supports the extension of the dividend tax rate and capital gains tax rate “because we know that it will have a real impact on our investors.”

The company’s shares have risen 18 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Randall Hackley in London at rhackley@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Randall Hackley at rhackley@bloomberg.net