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

Shares of TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the seven brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$17.08.

TA has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. TD Securities upped their price objective on shares of TransAlta from C$16.00 to C$18.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of TransAlta from C$17.00 to C$22.00 in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on TransAlta from C$14.00 to C$16.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Desjardins raised their price target on TransAlta from C$15.50 to C$16.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded TransAlta to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th.

TransAlta Trading Down 0.7 %

TSE:TA opened at C$20.02 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 219.87. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is C$15.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$12.60. TransAlta has a 12-month low of C$8.22 and a 12-month high of C$20.98. The firm has a market cap of C$5.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.54, a PEG ratio of -0.07 and a beta of 0.93.

TransAlta Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Shareholders of record on Sunday, December 1st will be issued a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.63%.

Insider Transactions at TransAlta

In other TransAlta news, Director John Harry Kousinioris sold 35,179 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$20.73, for a total transaction of C$729,260.67. Also, Senior Officer Jane Nyla Fedoretz sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of C$15.11, for a total value of C$377,750.00. Insiders sold 224,763 shares of company stock valued at $3,757,070 in the last 90 days. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.