Wall Street Zen Upgrades TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) to “Hold”

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on TAC. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on TransAlta from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. CIBC raised TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Cibc World Mkts raised TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.75.

TransAlta Stock Performance

NYSE TAC opened at $11.10 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.07 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $9.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $10.76. TransAlta has a 1-year low of $6.78 and a 1-year high of $14.64.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.09 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $526.69 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $509.31 million. TransAlta had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 18.47%. As a group, analysts anticipate that TransAlta will post 0.41 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TransAlta

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Signaturefd LLC grew its position in shares of TransAlta by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 27,627 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $391,000 after buying an additional 1,420 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in TransAlta by 145,600.0% in the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 2,914 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 2,912 shares in the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in TransAlta by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 69,004 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $976,000 after purchasing an additional 3,499 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in TransAlta by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 126,761 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,811,000 after purchasing an additional 4,140 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its holdings in TransAlta by 48,666.7% in the first quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 4,389 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 4,380 shares in the last quarter. 59.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.