Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN) Short Interest Up 21.6% in December

Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 18,570,000 shares, an increase of 21.6% from the December 15th total of 15,270,000 shares. Approximately 2.4% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 5,520,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AQN. Bank of Montreal Can increased its holdings in Algonquin Power & Utilities by 6.0% in the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 20,882,966 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $115,175,000 after purchasing an additional 1,190,236 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 17,190,084 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $93,918,000 after buying an additional 832,739 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its position in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities by 45.5% during the 3rd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 12,959,770 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,806,000 after buying an additional 4,054,711 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 7,720,474 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,105,000 after acquiring an additional 447,246 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in Algonquin Power & Utilities by 31.2% during the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,956,389 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,989,000 after acquiring an additional 1,415,889 shares in the last quarter. 62.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. CIBC dropped their price objective on 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. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $6.00 target price on shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities in a report on Friday, October 11th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities from $5.75 to $5.25 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 8th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities from $6.00 to $5.50 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $7.00 price target on shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $6.13.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Stock Performance

Shares of AQN stock opened at $4.41 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $4.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $5.17. Algonquin Power & Utilities has a one year low of $4.19 and a one year high of $6.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.38 billion, a PE ratio of -3.41 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.73.

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

Algonquin Power & Utilities Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a $0.065 dividend. This represents a $0.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. Algonquin Power & Utilities’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -20.15%.

About Algonquin Power & Utilities

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.