TransAlta Co. (TA) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 31st

TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 24th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.06 per share on Monday, July 1st. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st.

TransAlta Stock Performance

Shares of TA opened at C$9.32 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 253.18. The stock has a market capitalization of C$2.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -0.07 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is C$8.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$10.04. TransAlta has a 12 month low of C$8.22 and a 12 month high of C$13.97.

TransAlta (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 23rd. The company reported C($0.27) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.18 by C($0.45). The company had revenue of C$624.00 million for the quarter. TransAlta had a return on equity of 43.58% and a net margin of 20.71%. As a group, analysts predict that TransAlta will post 0.4700714 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of TransAlta from C$15.00 to C$14.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 26th. National Bankshares dropped their price target on shares of TransAlta from C$14.00 to C$13.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. TD Securities dropped their price target on shares of TransAlta from C$15.00 to C$14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 26th. CIBC dropped their price target on shares of TransAlta from C$18.50 to C$16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of TransAlta from C$17.00 to C$16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of C$15.55.

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.