AltaGas (TSE:ALA) Reaches New 52-Week High – Here’s What Happened

AltaGas Ltd. (TSE:ALA) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as C$39.39 and last traded at C$39.33, with a volume of 53470 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$38.99.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on ALA. CIBC increased their target price on AltaGas from C$40.00 to C$42.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AltaGas has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$39.11.

AltaGas Trading Up 0.9 %

The stock has a market cap of C$11.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.07, 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 quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 1.03. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is C$36.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$34.65.

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%. Equities research analysts expect that AltaGas Ltd. will post 2.3006093 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AltaGas Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.315 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 17th. This represents a $1.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.17%. This is a boost from AltaGas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. AltaGas’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.98%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AltaGas news, Senior Officer Donald Mark Jenkins sold 12,352 shares of AltaGas 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, Senior Officer Corine Renae Knight Bushfield sold 144,064 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$38.00, for a total transaction of C$5,474,432.00. Over the last three months, insiders sold 305,405 shares of company stock worth $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.