Great West Life Assurance Co. Can Purchases New Holdings in Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN)

Great West Life Assurance Co. Can purchased a new stake in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN – Get Rating) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 328,459 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,598,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. US Bancorp DE increased its position in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities by 83.7% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,485 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 1,132 shares during the last quarter. Power Corp of Canada purchased a new stake in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities during the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities by 66.4% during the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 3,526 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 1,407 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities by 2,274.4% during the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 6,316 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $85,000 after acquiring an additional 6,050 shares during the last quarter. 41.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Desjardins downgraded Algonquin Power & Utilities from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, January 13th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Algonquin Power & Utilities in a research report on Wednesday, October 12th. They issued a “sell” rating for the company. Credit Suisse Group decreased their target price on Algonquin Power & Utilities from $11.00 to $10.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 13th. National Bankshares decreased their target price on Algonquin Power & Utilities from $13.50 to $12.50 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 14th. Finally, TheStreet downgraded Algonquin Power & Utilities from a “c” rating to a “d+” rating in a research report on Friday, November 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $10.22.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Price Performance

Algonquin Power & Utilities stock opened at $7.30 on Tuesday. Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. has a one year low of $6.41 and a one year high of $16.01. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $7.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $10.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 121.67, a PEG ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 0.47.

Algonquin Power & Utilities (NYSE:AQN – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 11th. The utilities provider reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $666.72 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $614.83 million. Algonquin Power & Utilities had a return on equity of 6.65% and a net margin of 1.45%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. will post 0.67 EPS for the current year.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 13th. Investors of record on Friday, December 30th were paid a dividend of $0.181 per share. This is a positive change from Algonquin Power & Utilities’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 29th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.92%. Algonquin Power & Utilities’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 1,200.00%.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Profile

(Get Rating)

Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. operates as a diversified utility company. The firm engages in the ownership and operation of a portfolio of regulated and non-regulated generation, distribution and transmission utility assets. It operates through the following segments: Regulated Services Group, and Renewable Energy Group.