TransAlta (TSE:TA) Stock Passes Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average – What’s Next?

TransAlta Co. (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC)’s stock price crossed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Friday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of C$14.82 and traded as high as C$15.67. TransAlta shares last traded at C$15.50, with a volume of 2,315,409 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on TA. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of TransAlta from C$14.00 to C$16.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Cibc World Mkts lowered shares of TransAlta from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. TD Securities lifted their target price on shares of TransAlta from C$16.00 to C$18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. CIBC downgraded TransAlta from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from C$17.00 to C$23.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Desjardins boosted their price objective on TransAlta from C$15.50 to C$16.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$18.71.

TransAlta Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 219.87, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.84. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is C$18.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$14.82. The stock has a market cap of C$4.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -0.07 and a beta of 0.93.

TransAlta (TSE:TA) (NYSE:TAC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported C($0.12) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 period last year, the firm posted $1.19 earnings per share.

Insider Buying and Selling at TransAlta

In other news, Director John Harry Kousinioris sold 45,000 shares of TransAlta stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$17.67, for a total value of C$795,150.00. Also, Senior Officer Jane Nyla Fedoretz sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of C$15.11, for a total value of C$377,750.00. Insiders have sold a total of 204,763 shares of company stock valued at $3,478,670 in the last three months. Corporate 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.