Royal Bank of Canada Raises AltaGas (TSE:ALA) Price Target to C$34.00

AltaGas (TSE:ALA) had its price objective hoisted by Royal Bank of Canada from C$32.00 to C$34.00 in a research report released on Friday morning, BayStreet.CA reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on ALA. Scotiabank upped their target price on AltaGas from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Jefferies Financial Group set a C$34.00 target price on AltaGas and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. TD Securities boosted their price target on shares of AltaGas from C$32.00 to C$34.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Finally, National Bankshares upped their price target on AltaGas from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, AltaGas currently has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus price target of C$34.15.

AltaGas Stock Performance

ALA opened at C$30.36 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 125.64. The business’s 50 day moving average is C$29.47 and its 200-day moving average is C$28.17. The stock has a market cap of C$8.97 billion, a PE ratio of 13.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -4.97 and a beta of 1.22. AltaGas has a twelve month low of C$22.57 and a twelve month high of C$30.55.

AltaGas (TSE:ALA) last announced its earnings results on Friday, March 8th. The company reported C$0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of C$0.75. AltaGas had a return on equity of 8.90% and a net margin of 5.18%. The firm had revenue of C$3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of C$4.11 billion. On average, analysts predict that AltaGas will post 2.1549815 earnings per share for the current year.

AltaGas Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a dividend of $0.298 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.93%. This is a positive change from AltaGas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. AltaGas’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.65%.

Insider Activity at AltaGas

In other news, Senior Officer Randy Warren Toone sold 40,000 shares of AltaGas stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$29.18, for a total transaction of C$1,167,200.00. In related news, Senior Officer Randy Warren Toone sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$29.18, for a total value of C$1,167,200.00. Also, Director Jeremy Jason Weatherhead sold 12,215 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$29.60, for a total value of C$361,564.00. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 68,239 shares of company stock valued at $2,002,672. Insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

AltaGas Company Profile

AltaGas Ltd. operates as an energy infrastructure company in North America. The company operates through Utilities and Midstream segments. The Utilities segment owns and operates franchised, cost-of-service, rate-regulated natural gas distribution and storage utilities in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the District of Columbia serving approximately 1.6 million customers.