TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) Plans Dividend Increase – $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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This is a boost from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04.

TransAlta has increased its dividend by an average of 8.6% per year over the last three years. TransAlta has a payout ratio of 64.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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

NYSE TAC opened at $7.43 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.95. TransAlta has a 52-week low of $5.94 and a 52-week high of $10.40. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $7.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $6.93. The firm has a market cap of $2.23 billion, a P/E 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.40. TransAlta had a return on equity of 45.47% and a net margin of 18.70%. The firm had revenue of $702.47 million for the quarter. On average, equities research analysts expect that TransAlta will post 0.74 earnings per share for the current 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.