AltaGas (TSE:ALA) Hits New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

AltaGas Ltd. (TSE:ALA) shares hit a new 52-week high on Friday . The company 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. CIBC lifted their price objective on AltaGas from C$40.00 to C$42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on AltaGas from C$40.00 to C$42.00 in a report on Monday, March 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, AltaGas currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$39.11.

AltaGas Trading Up 0.3 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.26. The stock has a market capitalization of C$11.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -4.97 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of C$35.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$34.36.

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

AltaGas Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.315 per share. This represents a $1.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 17th. This is an increase from AltaGas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. AltaGas’s payout ratio is 68.98%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AltaGas news, Senior Officer Corine Renae Knight Bushfield sold 144,064 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$38.00, for a total transaction of C$5,474,432.00. Also, 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 transaction of C$418,732.80. Insiders sold 290,205 shares of company stock worth $10,996,826 over the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.