  The ill-posed analytic continuation problem for Green's functions and
self-energies is investigated by revisiting the Pad\'{e} approximants
technique. We propose to remedy the well-known problems of the Pad\'{e}
approximants by performing an average of several continuations, obtained by
varying the number of fitted input points and Pad\'{e} coefficients
independently. The suggested approach is then applied to several test cases,
including Sm and Pr atomic self-energies, the Green's functions of the Hubbard
model for a Bethe lattice and of the Haldane model for a nano-ribbon, as well
as two special test functions. The sensitivity to numerical noise and the
dependence on the precision of the numerical libraries are analysed in detail.
The present approach is compared to a number of other techniques, i.e. the
non-negative least-square method, the non-negative Tikhonov method and the
maximum entropy method, and is shown to perform well for the chosen test cases.
This conclusion holds even when the noise on the input data is increased to
reach values typical for quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The ability of the
algorithm to resolve fine structures is finally illustrated for two relevant
test functions.
