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

TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the nine analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is C$15.55.

A number of research firms recently issued reports on TA. National Bankshares decreased their price target on shares of TransAlta from C$14.00 to C$13.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of 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 reduced their price objective on TransAlta from C$15.00 to C$14.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 26th. CIBC lowered their price objective on TransAlta from C$18.50 to C$16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Finally, TD Securities dropped their target price on TransAlta from C$15.00 to C$14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 26th.

TransAlta Trading Up 3.1 %

Shares of TA stock opened at C$10.04 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 253.18, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of C$8.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$9.92. The firm has a market capitalization of C$3.09 billion, a PE ratio of 4.31, a PEG ratio of -0.07 and a beta of 0.89. TransAlta has a 52-week low of C$8.22 and a 52-week high of C$13.97.

TransAlta (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 23rd. The company reported C($0.27) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of C$0.18 by C($0.45). TransAlta had a net margin of 20.71% and a return on equity of 43.58%. The company had revenue of C$624.00 million for the quarter. On average, analysts predict that TransAlta will post 0.4700714 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. 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.