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

TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the six brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$18.36.

Several research firms have recently commented on TA. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Desjardins increased their price target on shares of TransAlta from C$15.50 to C$16.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Scotiabank lowered shares of TransAlta from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and increased their price target for the company from C$19.00 to C$21.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of TransAlta from C$17.00 to C$22.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, CIBC upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from C$23.00 to C$19.50 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th.

Insider Buying and Selling at TransAlta

In other TransAlta news, Senior Officer Jane Nyla Fedoretz sold 3,602 shares of TransAlta stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$18.84, for a total value of C$67,861.68. Also, Senior Officer Joel E. Hunter purchased 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was bought at an average price of C$14.99 per share, for a total transaction of C$674,752.50. Insiders have sold a total of 48,786 shares of company stock worth $991,293 in the last quarter. 0.21% of the stock is owned by insiders.

TransAlta Stock Down 0.1 %

TA stock opened at C$13.40 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is C$17.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$15.52. The firm has a market capitalization of C$4.02 billion, a PE ratio of 19.10, a P/E/G ratio of -0.07 and a beta of 0.93. TransAlta has a 12 month low of C$8.22 and a 12 month high of C$21.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 229.66, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

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.