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

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ALA has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of AltaGas from C$50.00 to C$55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of AltaGas from C$49.00 to C$53.00 in a research note on Monday, March 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of AltaGas from C$49.00 to C$52.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. National Bank Financial raised their price objective on shares of AltaGas from C$51.00 to C$52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, ATB Cormark Capital Markets raised their price objective on AltaGas from C$54.00 to C$56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, According to MarketBeat, AltaGas presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of C$53.25.

AltaGas Stock Performance

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 fifty day simple moving average of C$49.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$44.76. The company 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported C$1.33 EPS for the quarter. AltaGas had a return on equity of 5.92% and a net margin of 4.02%.The company had revenue of C$3.97 billion for the quarter. On average, analysts anticipate that AltaGas Ltd. will post 2.3006093 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AltaGas Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st were given a $0.334 dividend. This represents a $1.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. This is a boost from AltaGas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. AltaGas’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.