TransAlta Corporation (NYSE:TAC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of TransAlta Corporation (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Buy” by the seven research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $19.8750.

A number of research firms have commented on TAC. Scotiabank raised shares of TransAlta from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $16.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Friday, July 18th. National Bankshares reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of TransAlta in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $20.00 price objective (up from $19.00) on shares of TransAlta in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of TransAlta from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 14th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on TransAlta from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TransAlta

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in TransAlta by 145,600.0% in the 1st 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 last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its holdings in TransAlta by 48,666.7% in the 1st quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 4,389 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 4,380 shares during the last quarter. Tobam lifted its holdings in TransAlta by 239.2% in the 1st quarter. Tobam now owns 10,943 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $102,000 after purchasing an additional 7,717 shares during the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the 1st quarter worth approximately $119,000. Finally, Savant Capital LLC acquired a new stake in TransAlta in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $127,000. Institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

TransAlta Stock Performance

NYSE:TAC opened at $12.26 on Thursday. TransAlta has a twelve month low of $7.82 and a twelve month high of $14.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.98. The company has a 50-day moving average of $11.46 and a 200-day moving average of $10.23. The firm has a market cap of $3.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -29.19 and a beta of 0.75.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.06. TransAlta had a negative net margin of 6.79% and a negative return on equity of 2.06%. The company had revenue of $451.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $473.94 million. Analysts forecast that TransAlta will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Monday, September 1st will be paid a $0.065 dividend. This represents a $0.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. This is a positive change from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.05. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -45.24%.

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.