TransAlta (TSE:TA) Shares Cross Above 200 Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC)’s stock price passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of C$10.54 and traded as high as C$14.37. TransAlta shares last traded at C$14.20, with a volume of 2,376,499 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on TA. CIBC lowered their price objective on TransAlta from C$16.50 to C$15.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on TransAlta from C$16.00 to C$17.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, National Bankshares upped their price objective on shares of TransAlta from C$14.00 to C$15.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of C$15.43.

TransAlta Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 219.87. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is C$12.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$10.62. The stock has a market capitalization of C$4.32 billion, a PE ratio of 7.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -0.07 and a beta of 0.93.

TransAlta (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported C$0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of C$0.07 by C$0.11. The firm had revenue of C$582.00 million during the quarter. TransAlta had a return on equity of 32.01% and a net margin of 19.50%.

TransAlta Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Sunday, September 1st were given a dividend of $0.06 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of ∞. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other TransAlta news, Senior Officer Kerry Lynn O’reilly sold 48,833 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$10.99, for a total value of C$536,674.67. In related news, Senior Officer Jane Nyla Fedoretz sold 41,378 shares of TransAlta stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$11.30, for a total transaction of C$467,571.40. Also, Senior Officer Kerry Lynn O’reilly sold 48,833 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$10.99, for a total value of C$536,674.67. In the last three months, insiders sold 120,217 shares of company stock worth $1,397,220. Corporate insiders own 0.21% 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.