AltaGas Ltd. (TSE:ALA) Given Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

AltaGas Ltd. (TSE:ALA - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$39.11.

ALA has been the subject of a number of research reports. CIBC raised their target price 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 boosted their price target on shares of AltaGas from C$40.00 to C$42.00 in a report on Monday, March 10th.

Insider Transactions at AltaGas

In other news, Senior Officer Donald Mark Jenkins sold 12,352 shares of the firm's 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 Randy Warren Toone sold 92,000 shares of AltaGas stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of C$39.19, for a total transaction of C$3,605,480.00. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 410,766 shares of company stock valued at $15,720,960. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

AltaGas Stock Performance

Shares of TSE ALA traded up C$0.98 during midday trading on Friday, hitting C$37.53. 1,274,264 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 936,666. AltaGas has a twelve month low of C$28.76 and a twelve month high of C$40.17. The firm has a market cap of C$11.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.75, a PEG ratio of -4.97 and a beta of 1.23. The stock's 50 day moving average price is C$36.61 and its 200-day moving average price is C$34.83. 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 - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, March 7th. The company reported C$0.76 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 business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a $0.315 dividend. This is a positive change from AltaGas's previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 17th. This represents a $1.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.36%. AltaGas's payout ratio is currently 68.98%.

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.