TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) Upgraded at Jefferies Financial Group

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) was upgraded by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

TAC has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Wall Street Zen cut TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on TransAlta from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. CIBC raised shares of TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts raised TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.75.

TransAlta Stock Performance

Shares of TAC stock opened at $10.48 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.94. TransAlta has a 12-month low of $6.78 and a 12-month high of $14.64. The business’s 50 day moving average is $9.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $10.76. The company has a market capitalization of $3.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.55 and a beta of 0.74.

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

Institutional Trading of TransAlta

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TAC. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in TransAlta by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 79,957 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,131,000 after buying an additional 5,593 shares during the last quarter. Pinnbrook Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,185,000. Private Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta in the fourth quarter valued at $150,000. A&I Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in TransAlta during the 4th quarter valued at about $729,000. Finally, Sage Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new position in shares of TransAlta during the 4th quarter worth approximately $156,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

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.