AltaGas (TSE:ALA) Hits New 1-Year High – Should You Buy?

AltaGas Ltd. (TSE:ALA) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as C$38.30 and last traded at C$38.09, with a volume of 126213 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$37.42.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ALA has been the subject of a number of research reports. Scotiabank increased their target price on AltaGas from C$39.00 to C$40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. CIBC increased their price objective on shares of AltaGas from C$40.00 to C$42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AltaGas currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$38.40.

AltaGas Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is C$34.48 and its 200 day moving average price is C$34.08. The firm has a market cap of C$11.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.26, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 7th. The company reported C$0.76 EPS for the quarter. AltaGas had a net margin of 4.04% and a return on equity of 6.36%. As a group, equities analysts predict that AltaGas Ltd. will post 2.3006093 EPS for the current year.

AltaGas Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a dividend of $0.298 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $1.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.10%. AltaGas’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling at AltaGas

In other news, Senior Officer Donald Mark Jenkins sold 12,352 shares of AltaGas stock in a transaction dated 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, Senior Officer Vernon Dai-Chung Yu bought 7,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of C$32.97 per share, for a total transaction of C$250,549.20. Corporate 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.