Verity & Verity LLC Lowers Stock Position in Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN)

Verity & Verity LLC lessened its stake in Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN) by 44.8% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 10,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 8,113 shares during the quarter. Verity & Verity LLC’s holdings in Algonquin Power & Utilities were worth $59,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AQN. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its position in Algonquin Power & Utilities by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 356,479 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,249,000 after acquiring an additional 6,694 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities by 76.3% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 4,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 1,882 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,682,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,665,000 after purchasing an additional 187,687 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 677,459 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,288,000 after buying an additional 17,940 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Algonquin Power & Utilities by 754.0% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 15,552,484 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $98,292,000 after buying an additional 13,731,305 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on AQN shares. Raymond James cut shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $7.75 to $7.00 in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities from $6.50 to $5.75 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Janney Montgomery Scott initiated coverage on shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $6.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Algonquin Power & Utilities from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $8.50 to $6.00 in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, National Bank Financial raised Algonquin Power & Utilities from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $6.33.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Price Performance

Shares of AQN stock opened at $5.52 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market cap of $4.23 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.27 and a beta of 0.67. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $5.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $5.95. Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $4.90 and a fifty-two week high of $6.79.

Algonquin Power & Utilities (NYSE:AQN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $598.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $635.95 million. Algonquin Power & Utilities had a net margin of 4.70% and a return on equity of 5.36%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.08 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. will post 0.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of $0.065 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.71%. Algonquin Power & Utilities’s payout ratio is -53.06%.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Company Profile

Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. operates in the power and utility industries in the United States, Canada, and other regions. The company operates in two segments, Regulated Services Group and Renewable Energy Group. The company primarily owns and operates a regulated electric, water distribution and wastewater collection, and natural gas utility systems and transmission operations.