TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) Given Average Rating of “Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) have been given an average rating of “Buy” by the nine research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$15.28.

Separately, CIBC raised their price objective on TransAlta from C$16.00 to C$16.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th.

Insider Activity at TransAlta

In other news, Senior Officer Blain Mitchell Van Melle sold 10,000 shares of TransAlta stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$9.67, for a total transaction of C$96,700.00. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

TransAlta Trading Up 1.1 %

TSE TA opened at C$9.61 on Friday. The company has a market cap of C$2.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.93, a P/E/G ratio of -0.07 and a beta of 0.87. TransAlta has a 12 month low of C$8.22 and a 12 month high of C$13.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 217.60, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The company has a 50-day moving average of C$9.61 and a 200-day moving average of C$9.62.

TransAlta (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 3rd. The company reported C$0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of C$0.18 by C$0.54. The company had revenue of C$947.00 million during the quarter. TransAlta had a net margin of 19.39% and a return on equity of 33.61%. As a group, equities analysts predict that TransAlta will post 0.8411458 earnings per share for the current year.

TransAlta Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Saturday, June 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.31%.

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.