AltaGas Ltd. (TSE:ALA) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of AltaGas Ltd. (TSE:ALA) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$39.11.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. CIBC raised their price target on shares of AltaGas from C$40.00 to C$42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of AltaGas from C$40.00 to C$42.00 in a research report on Monday, March 10th.

AltaGas Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of AltaGas stock opened at C$39.12 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is C$36.24 and its 200 day moving average is C$34.72. AltaGas has a one year low of C$28.76 and a one year high of C$40.17. The firm has a market cap of C$11.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.67, a PEG 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 posted 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%. Equities research analysts anticipate that AltaGas will post 2.3006093 EPS for the current year.

AltaGas Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.315 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 17th. This is an increase from AltaGas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.22%. AltaGas’s payout ratio is presently 68.98%.

Insider Activity at AltaGas

In related news, Senior Officer Donald Mark Jenkins sold 12,352 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$33.90, for a total transaction of C$418,732.80. Also, Director Peter James Ledig sold 25,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$38.35, for a total value of C$966,420.00. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 305,405 shares of company stock valued at $11,580,506. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.