AltaGas (TSE:ALA) Hits New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

AltaGas Ltd. (TSE:ALA)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Thursday . The stock traded as high as C$44.40 and last traded at C$44.38, with a volume of 1583963 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$42.77.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on ALA shares. ATB Capital raised their target price on AltaGas from C$48.00 to C$49.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 23rd. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upped their target price on AltaGas from C$47.00 to C$50.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on shares of AltaGas from C$44.00 to C$48.00 in a research report on Friday, October 31st. National Bank Financial upped their price objective on shares of AltaGas from C$46.00 to C$50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of AltaGas from C$48.00 to C$50.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$48.11.

AltaGas Stock Performance

The company’s 50 day moving average price is C$41.57 and its 200-day moving average price is C$41.89. The stock has a market cap of C$13.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -4.97 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.26, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 1.03.

AltaGas (TSE:ALA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported C($0.08) earnings per share for the quarter. AltaGas had a net margin of 4.04% and a return on equity of 6.36%. The firm had revenue of C$2.60 billion for the quarter. Equities analysts forecast that AltaGas Ltd. will post 2.3006093 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AltaGas Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st were paid a $0.315 dividend. This represents a $1.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 16th. AltaGas’s payout ratio is presently 49.90%.

About AltaGas

AltaGas Ltd owns and operates a diversified basket of energy infrastructure businesses. Business is conducted through four segments: Midstream, power, utilities and corporate. Utility business owns and operates rate-regulated natural gas distribution assets across North America. Midstream business subsequent to the sale of non-core midstream assets in Canada and also engaged in the natural gas liquid processing and extraction, transportation, and storage. Natural gas is sold and purchased for both commercial and industrial users.