TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) Earns Hold Rating from Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) in a report published on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm issued a hold rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on TAC. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com cut TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Scotiabank lowered TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, CIBC upgraded TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $19.50.

TransAlta Price Performance

Shares of NYSE TAC opened at $8.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.67. TransAlta has a 1-year low of $5.94 and a 1-year high of $14.64. The company has a market capitalization of $2.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.16 and a beta of 0.72. The business has a 50-day moving average of $9.77 and a 200-day moving average of $11.11.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.28). The company had revenue of $484.60 million during the quarter. TransAlta had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 6.38%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that TransAlta will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.0458 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. This is a boost from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.90%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TransAlta

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in TransAlta by 145,600.0% in the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 2,914 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 2,912 shares during the period. Tobam bought a new stake in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter valued at about $46,000. Ballentine Partners LLC acquired a new stake in TransAlta during the fourth quarter worth about $145,000. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC acquired a new position in TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $147,000. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in shares of TransAlta during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $150,000. 59.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

TransAlta Company Profile

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.