TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Increases Dividend to $0.04 Per Share

TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, July 29th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Sunday, September 1st will be given a dividend of 0.044 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, October 1st. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.38%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. This is a positive change from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04.

TransAlta has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.6% per year over the last three years. TransAlta has a dividend payout ratio of 64.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect TransAlta to earn $0.54 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.18 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 33.3%.

TransAlta Stock Performance

Shares of TAC stock traded up $0.02 on Wednesday, hitting $7.38. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 48,183 shares, compared to its average volume of 735,670. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.95, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.69. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $7.11 and its 200-day moving average is $6.93. TransAlta has a fifty-two week low of $5.94 and a fifty-two week high of $10.40. The company has a market capitalization of $2.22 billion, a PE ratio of 4.75 and a beta of 0.89.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.40. TransAlta had a net margin of 18.70% and a return on equity of 45.47%. The business had revenue of $702.47 million for the quarter. Equities research analysts expect that TransAlta will post 0.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.