TransAlta Co. (TAC) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 28th

TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 11th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Saturday, March 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.0423 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $0.17 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

TransAlta has raised its dividend by an average of 8.8% per year over the last three years. TransAlta has a dividend payout ratio of 106.3% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect TransAlta to earn $0.44 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.17 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.6%.

TransAlta Stock Performance

TAC opened at $10.63 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $12.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $11.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.16 billion, a PE ratio of 25.92 and a beta of 0.83. 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 $5.94 and a 12-month high of $14.64.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported ($0.16) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.12 by ($0.28). TransAlta had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 6.38%. The business had revenue of $484.60 million for the quarter. On average, analysts anticipate that TransAlta will post 0.41 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Desjardins reissued a “hold” rating on shares of TransAlta in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Scotiabank lowered shares of TransAlta from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. CIBC raised shares of TransAlta from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $23.00 to $19.50 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts raised shares of TransAlta from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.50.

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.