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

Shares of TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$16.17.

TA has been the subject of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of TransAlta from C$14.00 to C$16.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. TD Securities lifted their price target on shares of TransAlta from C$16.00 to C$18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of TransAlta from C$16.00 to C$17.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Desjardins downgraded TransAlta from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, National Bankshares increased their price target on TransAlta from C$14.00 to C$15.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Senior Officer Jane Nyla Fedoretz sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$13.92, for a total value of C$278,400.00. Insiders have sold a total of 45,006 shares of company stock valued at $656,223 over the last 90 days. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

TransAlta Stock Down 1.3 %

TA stock opened at C$15.02 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average of C$14.03 and a 200-day moving average of C$11.62. TransAlta has a fifty-two week low of C$8.22 and a fifty-two week high of C$15.37. The stock has a market capitalization of C$4.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.91, a P/E/G ratio of -0.07 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 219.87, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

TransAlta Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Investors of record on Sunday, December 1st will be paid a $0.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.63%.

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.