AltaGas (TSE:ALA) Sets New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

Shares of AltaGas Ltd. (TSE:ALA) hit a new 52-week high on Friday . The stock traded as high as C$38.59 and last traded at C$38.47, with a volume of 270484 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$38.37.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ALA. CIBC boosted their price target on shares of AltaGas from C$40.00 to C$42.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on AltaGas from C$40.00 to C$42.00 in a research report on Monday, March 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$39.11.

AltaGas Stock Up 0.3 %

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is C$35.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$34.36. The company has a market cap of C$11.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.32, a P/E/G ratio of -4.97 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.26, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.44.

AltaGas (TSE:ALA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 7th. The company reported C$0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. AltaGas had a return on equity of 6.36% and a net margin of 4.04%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that AltaGas Ltd. will post 2.3006093 earnings per share for the current year.

AltaGas Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.315 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. This is a positive change from AltaGas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.27%. AltaGas’s payout ratio is currently 68.98%.

Insider Transactions at AltaGas

In other news, Senior Officer Donald Mark Jenkins sold 12,352 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$33.90, for a total value of C$418,732.80. Also, Director Peter James Ledig sold 25,200 shares of AltaGas stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$38.35, for a total transaction of C$966,420.00. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 290,205 shares of company stock worth $10,996,826. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

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.