SG Americas Securities LLC Takes $64,000 Position in Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN)

SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 10,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $64,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Algonquin Power & Utilities by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 720,888 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,188,000 after purchasing an additional 1,979 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its position in Algonquin Power & Utilities by 31.1% during the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 42,274 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $656,000 after purchasing an additional 10,029 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in Algonquin Power & Utilities during the 1st quarter worth approximately $250,000. Natixis Advisors L.P. increased its position in Algonquin Power & Utilities by 39.8% during the 1st quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 19,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $306,000 after purchasing an additional 5,608 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Algonquin Power & Utilities by 57,813.0% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 422,186 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,552,000 after purchasing an additional 421,457 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AQN. Desjardins raised shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $4.75 to $5.75 in a research report on Monday, March 11th. StockNews.com raised shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday. CIBC increased their price objective on shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities from $7.00 to $7.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. TD Securities increased their price objective on shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities from $6.00 to $6.50 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Finally, National Bankshares lowered their price objective on shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities from $7.50 to $7.25 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Algonquin Power & Utilities has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $7.78.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Stock Performance

Algonquin Power & Utilities stock opened at $5.93 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 197.67 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $6.02 and a 200-day moving average of $5.98. Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. has a 52 week low of $4.90 and a 52 week high of $9.14.

Algonquin Power & Utilities (NYSE:AQN) last released its earnings results on Friday, March 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $666.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $661.73 million. Algonquin Power & Utilities had a return on equity of 5.64% and a net margin of 1.06%. The business’s revenue was down 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.22 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. will post 0.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a dividend of $0.1085 per share. This represents a $0.43 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. Algonquin Power & Utilities’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 1,433.33%.

About Algonquin Power & Utilities

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.