Algonquin Power & Utilities CorpAQN.TOPAST TOP PICKSep 14, 2026Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Sep 16, 2026. Market Open.
Continues working through a multi-year turnaround. Now mostly a regulated utility providing natural gas, water, and electricity. Positive that management's returned focus to simpler utility operations. New, approved utility rates are helping earnings. More than 80% of operations in US, HQ plans to move to US (reduce taxes, attract more US investors).
Debt remains extremely high, earnings growth still modest. She's just monitoring, needs to see more execution.
He owns a preferred share. AQN's problem is the debt from all their acquisitions back in the day; interest rates hit them hard and forced a dividend cut. They sold their renewables business. Then, shares fell after an earnings report that lowered their 2027 profit guidance. AQN now focuses on gas, water and electric services. The street is saying to them, "Prove to me you can make money again." It's sitting in the penalty box waiting for management to show a positive move.
They spent a lot to enter the renewables space and overlevered the balance sheet. That was a disaster. They've been cleaning that up to be a pure-play utility, which is a predictable business that investors like. They have completely new leadership and have reset. This offers safe, predictable income.
Nice beat last quarter. Energy infrastructure is a good theme. Management has righted the ship. Recent upgrade is justified. He's been buying since $6-7. Trades at 13x 2027 earnings (cheaper than peers), modelling ~14% EPS growth. Six analyst upgrades over last 30 days. Nice dividend.
Rates going up will affect utilities. Algonquin Power will keep its TSX listing and will get some US index inclusion. The price is attractive and the dividend yield is 5%. It will take a while for the company to clean itself up but it has started to do so and one day the issues will be better. He is topping up.