National Bank Financial Cuts Earnings Estimates for AltaGas

AltaGas Ltd. (TSE:ALA) – Equities researchers at National Bank Financial dropped their FY2024 earnings estimates for AltaGas in a note issued to investors on Monday, January 6th. National Bank Financial analyst P. Kenny now anticipates that the company will post earnings of $2.11 per share for the year, down from their previous forecast of $2.12. The consensus estimate for AltaGas’ current full-year earnings is $2.30 per share. National Bank Financial also issued estimates for AltaGas’ FY2025 earnings at $2.23 EPS and FY2028 earnings at $3.01 EPS.

ALA has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on AltaGas from C$37.00 to C$40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut AltaGas from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from C$36.00 to C$37.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. ATB Capital set a C$36.00 price target on shares of AltaGas and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on AltaGas from C$37.00 to C$39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on AltaGas from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$38.10.

AltaGas Stock Performance

TSE:ALA opened at C$33.73 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is C$33.61 and its 200 day moving average is C$33.02. The firm has a market cap of C$10.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.26, a PEG ratio of -4.97 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 115.50, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 0.85. AltaGas has a 52-week low of C$26.91 and a 52-week high of C$35.77.

Insider Activity

In other news, Senior Officer Vernon Dai-Chung Yu purchased 7,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of C$32.97 per share, for a total transaction of C$250,549.20. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

AltaGas Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a $0.298 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $1.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.53%. AltaGas’s payout ratio is currently 82.07%.

About AltaGas

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.