TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Increases Dividend to $0.05 Per Share

TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 21st, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 1st will be given a dividend of 0.0458 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, July 1st. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. This is a boost from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04.

TransAlta has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.8% annually over the last three years. TransAlta has a dividend payout ratio of 106.3% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect TransAlta to earn $0.44 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.17 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.6%.

TransAlta Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of NYSE:TAC opened at $10.88 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $12.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $10.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94. TransAlta has a 12-month low of $5.94 and a 12-month high of $14.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.53 and a beta of 0.83.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.28). TransAlta had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 18.47%. The firm had revenue of $484.60 million during the quarter. On average, equities analysts expect that TransAlta will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank lowered shares of TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Desjardins reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of TransAlta in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com downgraded TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, CIBC raised TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research report on Tuesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.50.

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.