AltaGas (TSE:ALA) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Scotiabank Analyst Says

AltaGas (TSE:ALA) had its price objective hoisted by Scotiabank from C$42.00 to C$45.00 in a report issued on Friday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. Scotiabank currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on ALA. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of AltaGas from C$40.00 to C$43.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. CIBC raised their target price on AltaGas from C$42.00 to C$43.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on AltaGas from C$38.00 to C$40.00 in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on AltaGas from C$39.00 to C$41.00 in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of AltaGas from C$40.00 to C$43.00 in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AltaGas has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$41.33.

AltaGas Price Performance

TSE ALA opened at C$40.20 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is C$38.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$35.52. AltaGas has a 12-month low of C$29.67 and a 12-month high of C$40.98. The firm has a market capitalization of C$11.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.30, a P/E/G ratio of -4.97 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.26.

AltaGas (TSE:ALA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 7th. The company reported C$0.76 earnings per share for the quarter. AltaGas had a return on equity of 6.36% and a net margin of 4.04%. Analysts forecast that AltaGas will post 2.3006093 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AltaGas Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 boost from AltaGas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 17th. AltaGas’s payout ratio is currently 68.98%.

Insider Activity at AltaGas

In other AltaGas news, Senior Officer Corine Renae Knight Bushfield sold 144,064 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 Randy Warren Toone sold 92,000 shares of AltaGas stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$39.19, for a total transaction of C$3,605,480.00. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 398,414 shares of company stock worth $15,302,227. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company 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.