Central Pacific Bank Trust Division Makes New $54,000 Investment in Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN)

Central Pacific Bank Trust Division purchased a new position in Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 10,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $54,000.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Krilogy Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities by 0.3% during the second quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC now owns 707,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,143,000 after buying an additional 1,800 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities by 76.3% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 4,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 1,882 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities by 4.1% during the second quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 108,564 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $636,000 after buying an additional 4,300 shares during the period. Value Partners Investments Inc. increased its stake in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities by 31.8% during the first quarter. Value Partners Investments Inc. now owns 18,338 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $116,000 after buying an additional 4,428 shares during the period. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities by 25.7% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 28,704 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $179,000 after buying an additional 5,863 shares during the period. 62.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on AQN shares. Raymond James lowered Algonquin Power & Utilities from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $7.75 to $7.00 in a research report on Monday, August 12th. CIBC decreased their price objective on Algonquin Power & Utilities from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 12th. Desjardins decreased their price objective on Algonquin Power & Utilities from $5.50 to $5.25 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 12th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Algonquin Power & Utilities from $6.50 to $5.75 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Algonquin Power & Utilities from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $8.50 to $6.00 in a report on Monday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $6.33.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Stock Performance

NYSE AQN traded down $0.08 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $5.25. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,629,809 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,657,704. Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. has a 12 month low of $4.90 and a 12 month high of $6.79. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $5.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $5.93. The company has a market cap of $4.03 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.72 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.78.

Algonquin Power & Utilities (NYSE:AQN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.01. Algonquin Power & Utilities had a return on equity of 5.36% and a net margin of 4.70%. The company had revenue of $598.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $635.95 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.08 EPS. Algonquin Power & Utilities’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. will post 0.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a $0.065 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.95%. Algonquin Power & Utilities’s payout ratio is -53.06%.

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.