ARS Investment Partners LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN)

ARS Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN) by 10.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 343,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 33,769 shares during the period. ARS Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Algonquin Power & Utilities were worth $1,529,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities during the fourth quarter worth about $63,000. Krilogy Financial LLC lifted its position in Algonquin Power & Utilities by 116.7% in the fourth quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC now owns 1,621,045 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,214,000 after purchasing an additional 873,045 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its position in Algonquin Power & Utilities by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 686,612 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,055,000 after purchasing an additional 28,548 shares during the period. Tallon Kerry Patrick acquired a new stake in Algonquin Power & Utilities in the fourth quarter valued at about $141,000. Finally, A. D. Beadell Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its position in Algonquin Power & Utilities by 158.5% in the fourth quarter. A. D. Beadell Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 88,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $393,000 after purchasing an additional 54,200 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AQN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. CIBC reduced their price objective on shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities from $5.75 to $5.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities from $6.00 to $5.50 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $6.00 price target on shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities in a research report on Friday, October 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $7.00 price target on shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities from $5.75 to $5.25 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $6.13.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of AQN opened at $4.41 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $4.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $5.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.92. The company has a market capitalization of $3.38 billion, a PE ratio of -3.41 and a beta of 0.69. Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $4.19 and a fifty-two week high of $6.79.

Algonquin Power & Utilities (NYSE:AQN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.09 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $573.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $620.46 million. Algonquin Power & Utilities had a negative net margin of 39.12% and a positive return on equity of 5.22%. The company’s revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.11 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a dividend of $0.065 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.90%. Algonquin Power & Utilities’s payout ratio is -20.15%.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Profile

Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. is an investment holding company, which engages in energy generation and water distribution facilities. It operates through the Regulated Services Group and Renewable Energy Group segments. The Regulated Services Group segment owns and operates a portfolio of electric, natural gas, water distribution, and wastewater collection utility systems and transmission.