Reasons to Add Algonquin Power & Utilities to Your Portfolio
Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp.’s AQN focus to maintain strong balance sheet, acquisitions to expand utility footprints and long-term capex program will act as growth catalysts.
The company, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates a portfolio of regulated and non-regulated generation, distribution as well as transmission utility assets in Canada and the United States.
Let’s focus on the factors that make Algonquin Power & Utilities an appropriate investment option at the moment.
Zacks Rank
Algonquin Power & Utilities currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Price Performance
In the past 12 months, Algonquin Power & Utilities’ shares have gained 19.4% against the industry’s decline of 3.8%.
Growth Projections
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2020 earnings is pegged at 67 cents per share on revenues of $1.83 billion. This indicates 6.35% and 12.43% increase of the bottom and the top line, respectively, from the year-ago period’s reported figures.
The company’s long-term (three to five years) earnings growth is pegged at 6.90%.
Dividend Yield
Currently, the company has a dividend yield of 4.47% compared with the Zacks S&P 500 composite’s 2.3% and the industry’s 3.34%.
Debt-to-Capital
The debt-to-capital is a good indicator of the financial position of a company. The indicator shows how much debt is used to run the business. The company has a debt-to-capital of 47.82% compared with the industry’s 51.32%.
Other Key Picks
Some other top-ranked stocks from the same industry are NorthWestern Corporation NWE, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. PCG and Southern Company SO. NorthWestern sports a Zacks Rank #1, while Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern Company carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Long-term earnings growth of Pacific Gas & Electric, NorthWestern and Southern Company is pegged at 2.51%, 3.08% and 4 %, respectively.
Pacific Gas & Electric, NorthWestern and Southern Company have trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 7.35%, 7.62% and 8.13%, on average, respectively.
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