AltaGas (TSE:ALA) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of AltaGas (TSE:ALA) from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage currently has C$37.00 price objective on the stock, up from their prior price objective of C$36.00.

ALA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. National Bankshares lifted their target price on AltaGas from C$36.00 to C$39.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on AltaGas from C$37.00 to C$40.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. ATB Capital set a C$36.00 price objective on AltaGas and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Raymond James lifted their target price on AltaGas from C$35.00 to C$37.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of AltaGas from C$37.00 to C$39.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$38.10.

AltaGas Price Performance

Shares of TSE ALA opened at C$33.71 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 115.50, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market cap of C$10.03 billion, a PE ratio of 23.25, a PEG ratio of -4.97 and a beta of 1.23. AltaGas has a one year low of C$24.67 and a one year high of C$35.77. The firm has a fifty day moving average of C$34.04 and a 200 day moving average of C$31.80.

AltaGas (TSE:ALA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported C$0.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.12 by C$0.02. AltaGas had a net margin of 3.58% and a return on equity of 5.78%. The company had revenue of C$2.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of C$2.54 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that AltaGas will post 2.3006093 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AltaGas Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a $0.298 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.54%. AltaGas’s payout ratio is 82.07%.

Insider Activity at AltaGas

In other news, Senior Officer Randy Warren Toone sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$33.82, for a total value of C$101,460.00. In other news, Senior Officer Randy Warren Toone sold 3,000 shares of AltaGas stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$33.82, for a total value of C$101,460.00. Also, Director Aaron Bishop sold 19,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$33.58, for a total value of C$665,555.60. Insiders sold a total of 33,320 shares of company stock worth $1,125,051 in the last 90 days. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.