AltaGas (TSE:ALA) Reaches New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

AltaGas Ltd. (TSE:ALA) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as C$44.22 and last traded at C$44.10, with a volume of 434237 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$43.95.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on ALA shares. ATB Capital increased their target price on shares of AltaGas from C$42.00 to C$43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on AltaGas from C$46.00 to C$48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. National Bankshares raised their price objective on AltaGas from C$44.00 to C$45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on AltaGas from C$47.00 to C$48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, CIBC upped their target price on AltaGas from C$46.00 to C$47.00 in a report on Friday, October 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$45.67.

AltaGas Trading Up 0.2%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.26, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 1.03. The stock has a market cap of C$13.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -4.97 and a beta of 0.23. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is C$42.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$40.62.

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

AltaGas Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 29th were given a $0.315 dividend. This represents a $1.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 16th. AltaGas’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.90%.

AltaGas Company Profile

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.