AltaGas (TSE:ALA) Hits New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

AltaGas Ltd. (TSE:ALA) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as C$49.09 and last traded at C$48.87, with a volume of 69562 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$48.55.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on ALA. National Bank Financial upped their target price on AltaGas from C$50.00 to C$51.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on AltaGas from C$48.00 to C$50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on AltaGas from C$45.00 to C$47.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. ATB Cormark Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of AltaGas from C$49.00 to C$52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Finally, TD Securities raised their target price on shares of AltaGas from C$48.00 to C$51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 9th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$49.89.

AltaGas Price Performance

The stock has a fifty day moving average price of C$44.97 and a 200-day moving average price of C$43.13. The company has a market cap of C$15.23 billion, a PE ratio of 19.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -4.97 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 118.25, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.44.

AltaGas (TSE:ALA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 6th. The company reported C$0.77 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$3.29 billion for the quarter. AltaGas had a return on equity of 8.74% and a net margin of 6.14%. On average, equities analysts expect that AltaGas Ltd. will post 2.3006093 earnings per share for the current year.

AltaGas Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be given a $0.334 dividend. This represents a $1.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. This is a positive change from AltaGas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. AltaGas’s payout ratio is currently 50.81%.

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.