Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE: AQN) stock jumped 1.35% on Thursday to $7.49 against a previous-day closing price of $7.39. With 3.85 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 7.3 million shares. During the session, the Utilities – Renewable company that operates in wider Utilities sector, reached to the highest price of $7.62 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $7.39. The 52-week range on AQN shows that it touched its highest point at $16.01 and its lowest point at $6.41 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $9.39. With its current market cap of 6.72 billion, AQN has annualized dividend of $0.98 while the current yield stands at 13.08%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 0.30.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of AQN was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 2.60%, but this was up by 11.29% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -31.66% while six-month performance fell -46.50%. The stock lost -47.18% in the past year, while it has gained 14.88% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for AQN yields 0.07 with Next year EPS estimates of 0.60. For the next quarter, that number is 0.20. This implies an EPS growth rate of -70.60% for this year and -10.34% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 3.90% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of -1.50%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 678.62 million AQN shares are outstanding with a float of 673.20 million shares on hand for trading. On Oct 13, 2022, short shares totaled 24.0 million, which was 3.54% higher than short shares on Sep 14, 2022. In addition to Mr. Arun Banskota as the firm’s Pres, CEO & Director, Mr. Anthony Johnston serves as its Chief Operating Officer.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 45.87% of AQN’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have minority control over the company. Other institutions hold — of AQN, in contrast to — held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for –. With a 1.31% stake in AQN, the Vanguard Total International Stoc is the largest stakeholder. A total of 8,915,555 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Government Pension Fund – Global, which owns about 1.27% of AQN stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 8,695,690 shares valued at 56.7 million. BMO Dividend Fund holds 1.24% of the stake in AQN, owning 8,472,900 shares worth 55.24 million.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for AQN since 13 analysts follow the stock currently. There are 2 analysts who recommend BUY ratings, while 2 suggest SELL ratings. Of the remaining analysts, 7 believe that the stock is worth HOLDING, 1 give it an OVERWEIGHT rating, and 1 thinks that it’s UNDERWEIGHT. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With AQN analysts setting a high price target of $11.00 and a low target of $6.75, the average target price over the next 12 months is $8.44. Based on these targets, AQN could surge 46.86% to reach the target high and fall by -9.88% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 12.68% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy. AQN will report FY 2022 earnings on 02/29/2024. Analysts have provided yearly estimates in a range of $0.74 being high and $0.66 being low. For AQN, this leads to a yearly average estimate of $0.68. The earnings surprise of a firm occurs when the actual results change from the consensus earnings estimate. Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. surprised analysts by -$0.06 when it reported $0.11 EPS against a consensus estimate of $0.17. The surprise factor in the prior quarter was $0.01. Based on analyst estimates, the high estimate for the next quarter is $0.21 and the low estimate is $0.18. The average estimate for the next quarter is thus $0.20.
