Brokerages Set TransAlta Corporation (NYSE:TAC) Target Price at $19.88

TransAlta Corporation (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $19.8750.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of TransAlta in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of TransAlta from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. TD Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $20.00 price objective (up from $19.00) on shares of TransAlta in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. National Bankshares restated an “outperform” rating on shares of TransAlta in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, CIBC restated an “outperform” rating on shares of TransAlta in a research report on Monday, October 20th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TAC. Bessemer Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of TransAlta during the first quarter worth approximately $638,000. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 64.9% during the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 17,525 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $164,000 after purchasing an additional 6,900 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in shares of TransAlta during the first quarter worth approximately $3,937,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 27.5% during the first quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 67,846 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $633,000 after purchasing an additional 14,636 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of TransAlta by 0.7% during the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 5,049,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,119,000 after purchasing an additional 33,676 shares during the period. 59.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

TransAlta Stock Performance

Shares of TAC stock opened at $17.63 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -41.96 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.98, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.79. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $14.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.86. TransAlta has a 52 week low of $7.82 and a 52 week high of $17.88.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $451.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $473.94 million. TransAlta had a negative net margin of 6.79% and a negative return on equity of 2.06%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that TransAlta will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current year.

TransAlta Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.065 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 1st. This represents a $0.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -45.24%.

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.