TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$18.33.

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. CIBC downgraded shares of TransAlta from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from C$17.00 to C$23.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank raised TransAlta to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Cibc World Mkts cut TransAlta from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on TransAlta from C$17.00 to C$22.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, TD Securities raised their price target on TransAlta from C$16.00 to C$18.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th.

TransAlta Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of TransAlta stock opened at C$20.89 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 219.87, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.84. The firm has a 50-day moving average of C$18.05 and a 200-day moving average of C$14.21. TransAlta has a 52-week low of C$8.22 and a 52-week high of C$21.22. The stock has a market cap of C$6.23 billion, a PE ratio of 10.99, a PEG ratio of -0.07 and a beta of 0.93.

TransAlta Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, December 1st were paid a $0.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. TransAlta’s payout ratio is currently 12.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John Harry Kousinioris sold 35,179 shares of TransAlta stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were 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 company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of C$15.11, for a total transaction of C$377,750.00. Insiders sold a total of 204,763 shares of company stock worth $3,478,670 in the last three months. 0.21% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.