TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) Receives Average Rating of “Buy” from Brokerages

TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) has been given an average recommendation of “Buy” by the nine brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$15.55.

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. TD Securities decreased their target price on shares of TransAlta from C$15.00 to C$14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on TransAlta from C$17.00 to C$16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 26th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on TransAlta from C$15.00 to C$14.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 26th. National Bankshares decreased their price target on shares of TransAlta from C$14.00 to C$13.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, CIBC cut their price target on shares of TransAlta from C$18.50 to C$16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th.

TransAlta Stock Up 3.1 %

Shares of TransAlta stock opened at C$10.04 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of C$8.92 and a 200 day moving average price of C$9.92. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 253.18. TransAlta has a twelve month low of C$8.22 and a twelve month high of C$13.97. The stock has a market cap of C$3.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -0.07 and a beta of 0.89.

TransAlta (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 23rd. The company reported C($0.27) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.18 by C($0.45). The company had revenue of C$624.00 million during the quarter. TransAlta had a net margin of 20.71% and a return on equity of 43.58%. Equities research analysts forecast that TransAlta will post 0.4700714 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 1st will be issued a $0.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.39%. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.30%.

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 holds interest of approximately 922 megawatts (MW) of owned hydroelectric generating capacity located in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario.