TransAlta (TSE:TA) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at Scotiabank

TransAlta (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Scotiabank from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on TA. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on TransAlta from C$14.00 to C$16.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. CIBC lowered shares of TransAlta from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from C$17.00 to C$23.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of TransAlta from C$17.00 to C$22.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. TD Securities increased 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. Finally, Cibc World Mkts lowered TransAlta from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$18.33.

TransAlta Trading Up 0.3 %

TSE:TA opened at C$19.35 on Thursday. TransAlta has a 52 week low of C$8.22 and a 52 week high of C$21.22. The firm’s fifty day moving average is C$18.51 and its 200-day moving average is C$14.43. The firm has a market cap of C$5.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.18, a P/E/G ratio of -0.07 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 219.87, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.84.

TransAlta (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported C($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.18 by C($0.30). TransAlta had a return on equity of 32.01% and a net margin of 19.50%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.19 EPS.

Insider Activity at TransAlta

In other TransAlta news, Senior Officer Jane Nyla Fedoretz sold 25,000 shares of TransAlta stock in a transaction 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. Also, Director John Harry Kousinioris sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$17.67, for a total transaction of C$795,150.00. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 204,763 shares of company stock valued at $3,478,670. 0.21% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.