TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. CIBC upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $19.50 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of TransAlta from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.75.

TransAlta Stock Down 2.7%

Shares of TransAlta stock 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 quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.74. TransAlta has a one year low of $6.78 and a one year high of $14.64. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $9.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $10.76.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TransAlta

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in TAC. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in TransAlta by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 79,957 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,131,000 after acquiring an additional 5,593 shares in the last quarter. Pinnbrook Capital Management LP purchased a new position in TransAlta during the 4th quarter valued at about $4,185,000. Private Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in TransAlta during the 4th quarter valued at about $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 TransAlta during the 4th quarter valued at about $156,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.00% 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.