TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, one has assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $19.75.

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on TransAlta from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of TransAlta in a research report on Friday, April 11th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. StockNews.com lowered shares of TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Scotiabank downgraded TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, CIBC upgraded TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th.

TransAlta Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE:TAC opened at $8.67 on Tuesday. TransAlta has a 12-month low of $6.78 and a 12-month high of $14.64. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $9.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94. The firm has a market cap of $2.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.15 and a beta of 0.71.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.09 by ($0.02). TransAlta had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 6.38%. The company had revenue of $526.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $509.31 million. On average, research analysts forecast that TransAlta will post 0.41 EPS for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of TransAlta

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of TransAlta by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,291,968 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $96,055,000 after purchasing an additional 62,145 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can increased its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 9,290,110 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $131,222,000 after acquiring an additional 716,139 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of TransAlta by 79.7% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,255,923 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $116,764,000 after acquiring an additional 3,662,900 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in TransAlta by 638.9% during the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 7,995,489 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $112,936,000 after purchasing an additional 6,913,431 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in TransAlta by 280.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,385,966 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $76,211,000 after purchasing an additional 3,969,037 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

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.