A$15.29
ALS is a consulting services business based in Australia. ALS shares (ALQ) are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and all prices are in Australian dollars. ALS has a trailing 12-month revenue of around $2.5 billion. If you're looking to buy shares, check out the steps below.
How to buy shares in ALS
To buy shares listed in Australia such as ALS, you'll need to sign up to a broker with access to the ASX. Our table can help you compare share trading platforms and choose or you can see our list of the best share trading platforms in Australia. Then follow these steps.
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Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, including your ID and tax file number. Fund your account with a bank transfer, PayPal or debit card.
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Search for ALS. Find the share by name or ticker symbol: ALQ. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
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Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until ALS reaches your desired price. Look into dollar-cost averaging to spread out your risk, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
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Decide on how many to buy. At today's price, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimise risk through the market's ups and downs.
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Check on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of ALS. Optimise your portfolio by tracking how your stock and the business performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that affect your stock.
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ALS stock price (ASX:ALQ)
Use our graph to track the performance of ALQ stocks over time.ALS shares at a glance
52-week range | $10.2883 - $16.04 |
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50-day moving average | $14.9144 |
200-day moving average | $13.4889 |
Target price | $14.84 |
PE ratio | 522.3334 |
Dividend yield | $0.392 (2.5%) |
Earnings per share (TTM) | $0.03 |
Where to buy ALS shares
Is it a good time to buy ALS stock?
The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. However, this is not a recommendation. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.
ALS price performance over time
Historical closes compared with the last close of A$15.18
1 week (2024-08-28) | -3.68% |
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1 month (2024-08-05) | 2.36% |
3 months (2024-06-05) | 5.42% |
6 months (2024-03-05) | 23.41% |
1 year (2023-09-05) | 26.61% |
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2 years (2022-09-05) | 30.08% |
3 years (2021-09-03) | 19.25% |
5 years (2019-09-05) | 91.67% |
Is ALS under- or over-valued?
Valuing ALS stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of ALS's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
ALS's P/E ratio
ALS's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 522x. In other words, ALS shares trade at around 522x recent earnings.
That's relatively high compared to, say, the P/E ratio for the ASX over the 12 months to December 2019 (32.14). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.
ALS's PEG ratio
ALS's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 1.12. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.
The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into ALS's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
ALS's EBITDA
ALS's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is $573.3 million (£293 million).
The EBITDA is a measure of a ALS's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure stock profitability.
ALS financials
Revenue TTM | $2.5 billion |
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Operating margin TTM | 18.83% |
Gross profit TTM | $752.8 million |
Return on assets TTM | 8.32% |
Return on equity TTM | 1.17% |
Profit margin | 0.52% |
Book value | 2.444 |
Market capitalisation | $7.6 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
ALS share dividends
Dividend payout ratio: 1471.7% of net profits
Recently ALS has paid out, on average, around 1471.7% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 2.5% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), ALS shareholders could enjoy a 2.5% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In ALS's case, that would currently equate to about A$0.392 per share.
ALS's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.
The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 11 June 2024 (the "ex-dividend date").
Have ALS's shares ever split?
ALS's shares were split on a 5:1 basis on 1 August 2012. So if you had owned 1 share the day before the split, the next day you would own 5 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your ALS shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 80% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for ALS shares which in turn could have impacted ALS's share price.
ALS share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, ALS's shares have ranged in value from as little as $10.2883 up to $16.04. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".
Beta measures a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (AU average) beta is 1, while ALS's is 1.158. This would suggest that ALS's shares are a little bit more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively speaking, a slightly higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).
ALS overview
ALS Limited provides professional technical services primarily in the areas of testing, measurement, and inspection in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. It operates in two segments, Commodities and Life Sciences. The Commodities segment offers assaying and analytical testing, and metallurgical services for the mining and mineral exploration companies. Its testing and consulting services cover the resource life cycle, including exploration, feasibility, optimization, production, design, development, trade, and rehabilitation. This segment also provides coal sampling, analysis and certification, formation evaluation, and related analytical testing services. The Life Sciences segment offers analytical testing and sampling, and remote monitoring services for the environmental, food, pharmaceutical, and consumer products markets; and microbiological, physical, and chemical testing services. This segment provides analytical testing data to assist consulting and engineering firms, industries, and governments. ALS Limited was founded in 1863 and is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia.
ALS in the news
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