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

AltaGas Ltd. (TSE:ALA)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as C$53.41 and last traded at C$53.28, with a volume of 83941 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$52.82.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ALA. National Bank Financial upped their target price on AltaGas from C$51.00 to C$52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Scotiabank upped their target price on AltaGas from C$54.00 to C$57.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on AltaGas from C$49.00 to C$53.00 in a research report on Monday, March 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on AltaGas from C$49.00 to C$52.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, TD Securities upped their target price on AltaGas from C$48.00 to C$51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 9th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of C$53.25.

AltaGas Stock Up 0.6%

The business has a fifty day moving average price of C$49.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$44.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 115.95, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.44. The firm has a market capitalization of C$16.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -4.97 and a beta of 0.38.

AltaGas (TSE:ALA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported C$1.33 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$3.97 billion for the quarter. AltaGas had a return on equity of 5.92% and a net margin of 4.02%. 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 was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st were issued a $0.334 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. This is a boost from AltaGas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. AltaGas’s dividend payout ratio is presently 77.99%.

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.