TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” from Analysts

Shares of TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the eight brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is C$17.06.

TA has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. CIBC boosted their price objective on shares of TransAlta from C$17.50 to C$18.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 8th. National Bankshares raised their price objective on TransAlta from C$14.00 to C$15.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 8th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of TransAlta from C$16.00 to C$17.00 in a report on Monday, May 8th. CSFB raised their price target on shares of TransAlta from C$17.00 to C$18.50 in a report on Tuesday, May 16th. Finally, ATB Capital boosted their price objective on shares of TransAlta from C$18.00 to C$19.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 8th.

TransAlta Trading Up 0.3 %

TA opened at C$13.01 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 190.63. The stock’s fifty day moving average is C$13.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$12.51. The company has a market capitalization of C$3.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.55, a PEG ratio of -0.07 and a beta of 1.06. TransAlta has a 52 week low of C$10.52 and a 52 week high of C$13.97.

TransAlta (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 4th. The company reported C$0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of C$0.04 by C$0.19. TransAlta had a return on equity of 18.75% and a net margin of 8.64%. The firm had revenue of C$625.00 million during the quarter. Analysts forecast that TransAlta will post 2.1589085 earnings per share for the current year.

TransAlta Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.055 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 31st. This represents a $0.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. TransAlta’s payout ratio is 22.92%.

About TransAlta

TransAlta Corporation engages in the development, production, and sale of electric energy. It operates through Hydro, Wind and Solar, Gas, Energy Transition, and Energy Marketing segments. The Hydro segment has a net ownership interest of approximately 922 megawatts (MW) of owned hydro electrical-generating capacity located in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario.