Ameresco’s (AMRC) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Stifel Nicolaus

Ameresco (NYSE:AMRC)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Stifel Nicolaus in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $38.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock, up from their previous price target of $37.00. Stifel Nicolaus’ target price would indicate a potential upside of 44.08% from the company’s previous close.

AMRC has been the subject of several other research reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Ameresco from $23.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Wall Street Zen cut Ameresco from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, January 10th. William Blair raised Ameresco to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. B. Riley Financial upped their price objective on shares of Ameresco from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Ameresco in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.20.

Ameresco Price Performance

Shares of Ameresco stock traded up $0.02 on Wednesday, reaching $26.38. The stock had a trading volume of 81,388 shares, compared to its average volume of 494,073. The business’s 50 day moving average is $31.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56. Ameresco has a 1 year low of $8.49 and a 1 year high of $44.93. The company has a market cap of $1.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 2.53.

Ameresco (NYSE:AMRC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.07. Ameresco had a net margin of 2.29% and a return on equity of 4.49%. The company had revenue of $581.03 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $556.09 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.88 earnings per share. Ameresco’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ameresco will post 1.15 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameresco

In related news, Director Nickolas Stavropoulos sold 15,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.15, for a total transaction of $536,155.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 14,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $481,890.65. This trade represents a 52.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 16,695 shares of company stock worth $569,614. Company insiders own 44.96% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ameresco

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in Ameresco by 14.3% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 679,355 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,319,000 after buying an additional 84,960 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Ameresco by 1,832.5% in the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,775,187 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,965,000 after acquiring an additional 1,683,326 shares during the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH boosted its holdings in Ameresco by 318.2% during the 3rd quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 107,788 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,620,000 after acquiring an additional 82,015 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Ameresco during the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,895,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its stake in Ameresco by 106.4% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 187,363 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,846,000 after purchasing an additional 96,606 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.24% of the company’s stock.

About Ameresco

Ameresco, Inc is a leading independent provider of comprehensive energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions for businesses and governments across North America, Europe and other select markets. Its integrated services portfolio includes energy efficiency retrofits, infrastructure upgrades, distributed generation systems and facility-scale renewable projects. Leveraging performance-based contracting models, Ameresco designs, finances, installs and maintains energy improvements intended to reduce operational costs, mitigate environmental impact and enhance resiliency for its clients.

Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts, Ameresco has completed thousands of projects spanning solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas‐to‐energy, energy storage and microgrid installations.