Scotiabank Downgrades TransAlta (TSE:TA) to Hold

Scotiabank lowered shares of TransAlta (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

TA has been the topic of a number of other reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on TransAlta from C$14.00 to C$16.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Cibc World Mkts downgraded shares of TransAlta from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of TransAlta from C$17.00 to C$22.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Desjardins raised their target price on shares of TransAlta from C$15.50 to C$16.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, CIBC downgraded shares of TransAlta from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from C$17.00 to C$23.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$18.33.

TransAlta Stock Performance

Shares of TransAlta stock opened at C$19.35 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is C$18.51 and its 200 day moving average is C$14.43. The stock has a market cap of C$5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.18, a PEG ratio of -0.07 and a beta of 0.93. TransAlta has a 1 year low of C$8.22 and a 1 year high of C$21.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 219.87, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

TransAlta (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.19 earnings per share.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other TransAlta news, Senior Officer Jane Nyla Fedoretz sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$15.49, for a total value of C$123,920.00. Also, Director John Harry Kousinioris sold 35,179 shares of TransAlta stock in a transaction 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 204,763 shares of company stock worth $3,478,670. Company insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

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.